


Making a Million Mistakes

by orphan_account



Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: Fatherhood, M/M, grown ass men in a ballpit, probably too much handholding, source of "charles lee is a mouse furry", trying their best, yes they go to chuck-e-cheese
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-16
Updated: 2016-02-26
Packaged: 2018-05-01 21:33:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 30,870
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5221697
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In a desperate attempt to prove he can be a responsible father Alexander agrees to watch Philip for the weekend at the "apartment" he doesn't actually have. Fortunately Aaron invites him to spend the weekend with him and Theo. Questionable parenting ensues.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Friday Afternoon

**Author's Note:**

> This started out as just a Drabble and turned into a bigger thing. I was going to make it three chapters in total (covering the whole weekend) but I'm already adding another chapter to Friday and I may add more. Either way expect ~4 chapters. I also have no idea wether I will put smut in this or not. I want to but I'm not sure where I'll fit it in. Ignoring canonical ages Philip and Theo are both six years old in this. If this first chapter seems awkward at points it's because I originally wrote this with them as babies and I changed the age for the sole purpose of making Hamilton and Burr go to chuck-e-cheese. So I promise that will happen.
> 
> NOTE: This fic has been orphaned. The creator can still be reached at thelustiestargonianmaid on tumblr

Alexander could not believe he had thought this would be a good idea.

The pain is his back had been getting progressively more irritating since he'd started living in his office and it had only been amplified by the emotional torment of seeing Eliza again. Now the absurd amount of luggage he had been carrying for the past ten blocks was making it nothing short of unbearable.

On top of his own oversized backpack (which he assured his ex-wife was full of paper-work and not his living necessities as was actually the case), Eliza had also given him a massive Costco bag full of far more than a weekend's worth of toys and clothes for his son which weighed more than Philip himself; to make matters worse, Philip had managed to talk Hamilton into letting him ride on his shoulders.

Alexander had once been so proud of how much his son had been growing, but now he now found himself hating it. Philip, at six years old, was getting far too heavy to be doing this but Alex hadn't exactly been "father of the year" lately so he couldn't bring himself to refuse his son's request.

People stared at him as he stumbled down the New York streets looking like a damn packhorse. Hamilton knew without checking that his wallet was empty so a cab was out of the question. He briefly considered calling Burr to ask for a ride but his pride held him back. For the first time ever he was grateful that his law partner had tricked him into renting an office far closer to his own home than to Hamilton's.

He was also thankful that Eliza had not yet realized that his "new apartment" was actually his office. "You'll be pleased to know I've gotten back on my feet," he had assured his ex-wife over the phone. "Yes yes of course I have the space to watch Philip for the weekend," he lied further.

Hamilton mentally kicked himself. Not only was he still lying to poor Eliza but on top of that he had almost forced Philip to live with him in his office, a thought he could hardly bear. 

On the bright side at least he was finally getting his first chance to spend time with his son since the divorce.

Thankfully, Burr had offered to let Hamilton and Philip stay at his house for a few days. Hamilton's heart sank a little when he realized how much he owed Burr; although he knew his partner's motivation was more about not wanting a child living in his office for a weekend and less about Alexander's well being, it didn’t change the fact that he was doing Hamilton a huge favour that he’d be hard-pressed to repay.

"Are we almost there?" Philip whined, grabbing a fistful of Hamilton's shirt fabric absentmindedly.

"Not too far Buddy," Hamilton said as cheerily as he could between breaths, "I think that's the place up there."

Philip followed his finger and immediately caught sight of the dark figure of Aaron Burr leaning against the wall of the building, "who's that?" He asked.

"Oh," Hamilton said forgetting Philip still believed he'd found his own place, "that's just my… roommate."

"Roommate?" Philip repeated, then asked, "is that what you call your wife if they aren't a girl?"

Hamilton stiffened, "that's not…"

But Philip wasn't done, "mommy said you don't treat girls nicely, is that why you have a boy wife?"

"Don't listen to a word she says," Hamilton interrupted, a little harsher than he had intended. He wasn't sure how much Eliza honestly knew about his… follies, but they were no business of Philip's. That being said, Hamilton knew it wasn't like Eliza to spread rumours about his sex life to his son; poor Philip had probably just overheard her ranting on the phone to her sister and drawn his own conclusions. He took a deep breath and corrected himself, "no do listen to you mother, she's right about a lot of things, but that's not what a roommate is. It's just a friend who you live with and they help you pay for the house."

"That sounds like a wife," Philip pointed out, not seeming all that hurt by his father's outburst.

Hamilton punished his petulance by setting him down and ruffling his hair, much to the boy's protests. 

He had to switch all the bags to one shoulder in order to hold Philips hand, but the awkward walking was worth it. God he had missed his son.

Burr's duplex was surprisingly unassuming. It was probably one of the most generic brick city living spaces Hamilton had ever seen. He didn't know what he had expected (an obsidian monolith perhaps?) but this certainly wasn't it.

Aaron Burr, with his cold demeanour and thin conniving smile that made him look like a movie villain, did not seem suited to a place as normal as this.

He looked villainous now, as he leaned against his own front door with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth. His dark clothes made him seem almost like a shadow, shrouded in the smoke that circled his head. It gave Hamilton chills.

Aaron watched his colleague struggle up towards him with his usual arrogant smirk, waiting until his colleague was at his walkway before extinguishing his cigarette and making his way over to help him with his bags.

"Alexander!" He greeted him jovially, "glad you could make it," he smelt like smoke.

"Your house better not be a cesspool of carcinogens," Hamilton growled while Burr grabbed the Costco bag from him.

"Don't worry Hamilton," his friend replied smugly, "I never risk anyone's lungs but my own," he paused a moment before adding darkly, "I make a point of not letting my indulges hurt my family." 

Hamilton bristled at the implication of Burr's comment. If he weren't so tired and his son weren't present he would punch the man. Aaron was right of course, but the truth only made him angrier and he just needed to put up with this for one weekend.

He grabbed Burr by the shoulder, pulled his face close and pleaded in a low voice, "Can we please not do this?"

"I pledge to stop now if you do the same for me," Burr replied, pulling away to unlock his front door. 

"Fine," Hamilton begrudgingly agreed. Burr was doing him a kindness, after all. "It's was just for this weekend," he repeated to himself under his breath.

He turned to smile as brightly as he could at Philip who was looking back at him with uncertainty. He gave his son's hand a squeeze to assure him that everything was fine and got a half-hearted smile in return.

Aaron took his things into the front hall while Alexander and Philip took off their shoes. Hamilton jumped a little when he heard Burr call up the stairs, "Theo we have guests."

"Who is…" Hamilton began but his question was answered by the appearance of a young girl, about Philip's age at the top of the stairs. 

"Come on Theo, say hello," Burr called to her, smiling the most genuine smile Hamilton had ever seen him make.

The girl came cautiously and gripped Aaron's hand as tightly as she could the second it was within her reach, "hello," she said in a soft voice, not meeting the eyes of her guests.

"Introduce yourself properly," Burr ordered her, though not unkindly.

The girl let out a breath and straightened herself up. She made a haughty expression, eerily similar to her father's, marched up to Hamilton and extended her tiny hand, "I'm Theodosia," she said, "pleasure to meet you."

She shook Hamilton's hand as firmly as a six year old girl could and extended the same greeting to Philip who high-fived her, unaware of the custom of handshakes.

Theodosia snickered at him.

"Well Theodosia, I'm Alex and this is Philip," Hamilton replied keeping his gaze locked on Aaron. He did not know there was going to be another child and this definitely complicated the scenario he had told Eliza. He could explain the roommate, but a roommate with a daughter?

"Theo why don't you show Philip to your room," Burr suggested. Theodosia nodded and Philip followed her up the stairs, looking back had his father with a confused expression. Hamilton smiled at him as assuredly as he could.

"You didn't tell me you had a daughter," Alexander hissed when they were out of earshot.

"You never asked" Burr replied as though never mentioning his family was a perfectly normal thing to do, "unlike you I don't go flaunting photos of my children to every unfortunate soul in the vicinity."

"It would've been a good thing to know before I came over," Hamilton snapped back.

"I didn't hide the existence of my daughter I've mentioned her before, though I suppose it was too much to assume you were listening. Either way it doesn't matter, what were you going to do? Let Philip sleep in your office? Theo is a nice girl they'll get along fine."

Hamilton didn't trust any child of Burr's but he wasn't going to say that out loud, "how am I supposed to explain this to his mother? She thinks I've got a new roommate not a new family!"

"It's a better than the truth: that you're in so much dept you have to live in the same place you practice law."

Hamilton sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, muttering angrily. He had a point, he always did.

"What about the mother?" He asked. He somehow didn't get the sense Burr lived with the woman who had birthed Theo but he also wanted to be absolutely certain that he wouldn't have to share this house with any more people.

"Dead," Aaron replied bluntly, "cancer. It was a few years ago, just before we started working together."

"I'm sorry I had no idea," Hamilton was being honest he had no clue Burr had ever been married, let alone a widower with such a young child.

"I never mentioned it," he said with an awkward shrug, then changed the subject, "I know I mentioned Theo to you though. You had no excuse to be surprised."

"I'm not exactly the best at paying attention!" Hamilton retorted.

"I know you're trying to use the attention deficit disorder as an excuse but I still think you'd have an easier time focusing on what other people are saying if you didn't talk over them," Burr replied.

Hamilton said nothing. He couldn't refute it but he still didn't appreciate the information.

He followed Burr into the entrance hall and took in his surroundings. The inside of the building was even more surprising than the outside.

If there was one thing Burr was strict about in his professional life, it was tidiness. The man kept his section of their office immaculate and Hamilton's mess of a working space was a constant source of strife between them. In fact, Alexander had been almost certain that it was Burr's anal neatness that had made him so eager to invite him over and, consequently, keep him from making their office any messier than it already was. 

Apparently he was wrong about the tidiness. Burr's home was a literal hoarder's nest. Although actual furniture was sparse, there was not a single corner or surface in the small building that didn't have an overflowing cardboard box of junk.

Not junk, Hamilton corrected himself. Upon closer inspection he noticed that the boxes had pretty nice stuff in them. He caught glimpses of pricy looking silverware, gilded painting frames and one even had what looked like a small crystal chandelier poking out of it. In fact all of Aaron's furniture was unreasonably expensive looking. He may only have had the bare minimum on display but it all must have cost a small fortune.

The place was surreal. It was like Burr had taken the contents of a mansion and tried to store it all in his small duplex. It didn't seem like him.

"I set the bed for Philip in Theo's room," Burr said, "I doubt you'll have an issue with them sleeping together, they're only six after all."

"What about me?" Hamilton asked, this house was certainly too small to have a guest room, however the living room sofa was definitely too small for him, on top of the fact that it was covered in even more boxes of crap.

Burr rubbed the back his neck, "here's the thing," he began, "I don't really have a spare room. I'm gonna give you your options, but you may not like them…"

Burr's tone made Hamilton's stomach churn apprehensively.

"There's this couch," Burr began pointing to the living room, "but it won't fit you I'm warning you now, I can't even nap on the damn thing. Of course you're welcome to try." 

"There is also a couch in the basement, but it's too big to get out of the basement and again I must warn you it's not a pleasant place to sleep. I don't suspect you are a very superstitious man, but it is quite creepy down there."

Hamilton took another look around the room and came to the conclusion that if so much of Burr's crap had to be stored in the rest of his house, surely his basement must be filled to the roof with junk.

"Please tell me your saved the best option for last," he pleaded.

"I think 'best' is a matter of opinion on this case," Burr began cautiously, "I have a futon in my own room, you can sleep there."

Hamilton forced himself not to gulp. He didn't like the idea of sleeping in the same room as Burr, not at all… but that was stupid! It wasn't like they were sharing a bed, it was just a bedroom. He forced his frown into a cocky smile, hoping Burr had not noticed his displeasure, and said as brightly as he could, "come on now Aaron! we're both adults. You had me worried there for a second. No need to phrase it like you're planning to have me sleep outside. Don't be ridiculous!"

Alexander was trying too hard. Burr could see it in his eyes and he gave him that look. God Hamilton hated that look. Some kind of a mix between pity and amusement. That smug asshole. He gave up on faking relief and proceeded to grab his bags and storm up the stairs, perhaps a little to quickly. 

He could see Theodosia's room the second he got up the stairs. The door was closed and he decided he would get himself unpacked before checking on his son. He felt bad about not having warned Philip about the extra company first. To be fair he hadn't known his work partner had a daughter any sooner than his son had.

Burr followed him up, "it's at the end of the hallway," he said, gesturing in the general direction of his room. The comment was pointless; the house was too small for Hamilton to have any trouble finding the bedroom.

Fortunately Burr's room wasn't full of crap like the rest of the house. It was as neat as his workspace and just as sparse.

The futon in the corner made it look more crammed than it actually was. Without it, the only other furniture was Aaron's bed, a single bedside table, several bookcases and a closet. Much like his office, Burr kept no clutter on any surface in his room. His book cases only contained books and his nightstand had only a lamp and a photograph of what Hamilton assumed was his wife but he didn't bother getting a good look at it. 

"You can just set your stuff down near your bed I don't really care if it's on the floor, so long as it's all gone when you leave," Burr said from the doorway.

Hamilton set his bags down and sat on the futon. It was about as comfortable as he expected, which is to say not very, but still an improvement from the office sofa.

"Why does one man own so many couches anyway," Hamilton remarked absentmindedly, thinking of the three sleeping options Burr had offered him.

Burr laughed at that, "it is a little excessive isn't it?" Then he dropped his voice to a more serious tone, "it's not really my stuff, you see. Theodosia– that's my wife, not my daughter, was married when we first met to a wealthy man who hadn't lived in New York for years but who had left her in charge of his mansion. After he died she inherited everything: the house, the furniture and the money. At that time we started living together up there."

The way Burr phrased that made it apparent to Hamilton that their relationship had begun long before the husband was buried. This all felt rather personal and he didn't expect Burr to finish but his colleague wasn't done.

"We never married," Aaron admitted after a long pause, "she was older than I was and had other children from the first marriage living out of town. We thought we'd wait a few years… y'know to make things easier on them. She… we… hadn't intended to have Theo…"

Aaron paused again. He wasn't crying but Hamilton could see he was pained, "you don't have to continue," he said but Burr just shook his head dismissively.

After taking a few deep breaths to compose himself he continued, "She never ended up really telling her other children about the whole affair and when she… after she died she felt as though she had to leave her fortune to them."

"So she didn't leave you anything?" Hamilton asked.

"Just the furniture," Aaron replied, "even her estate had to be sold and divided amongst her natural children. It had been her husband's money and it would've been… rather messy if she had left me with anything. She did leave us the furniture so now I've got a house full of that," he gestured towards the hallway that was visibly full of stacked boxes.

"So now you've got a mansion's worth of crap and no space to put it." Hamilton concluded.

"Exactly," Burr said with a chuckle, "I will sell it all one day; it's not practical to keep it all and I know she intended for Theo and I to sell it and use the money, but it still seems too soon, you know?"

Hamilton didn't really know but he nodded anyway. He had no clue how long a person was morally obligated to keep their loved one's old crap. He supposed it was all up to Burr.

"They're being awfully quiet in there," Hamilton said, hoping to change the subject, "do you think that's a good sign?"

"Probably," said Burr, "Theo isn't exactly loud but she's not as shy as you'd think. I assume she's got him drawing or something; she had all her art stuff out earlier."

Alexander still felt uneasy, "Philip's not usually so…"

"Calm?" Burr finished his thought process.

Hamilton sat down on the bed and put his head in his hands, "if he's anything like me I suppose but, fuck! Aaron, I have no idea! I haven't seen him in so long," he felt that sickening feeling in his chest grow, like he could burst into tears at any second.

"Children are forgiving Alex," Burr said calmly, "you've got the weekend to get to know him a little better and who knows? Eliza might start letting you see him more if this goes well."

"You don't understand," Hamilton sighed, "this was my last chance and I've already blown it! She's going to find out the second she gets back that I lied to her about the apartment and that I made Philip stay with you and your family and that will be the end of it. She won't let me see him again."

"Don't be a moron Hamilton," Burr retorted, "Eliza's a smart woman. She knows you care about your son and she's not so unkind that she won't let you be a part of his life."

"She didn't know I cared about her…" Hamilton mumbled petulantly.

"That's because you didn't!" Burr snapped, "you spent all your time at work and you constantly cheated on her! Don't you dare turn yourself into the victim here."

Hamilton was silent. He was angry but he knew if he tried to say anything he would break down and he couldn't do that, not in front of Burr.

Burr's expression softened a little, "come on Alex. You've been given this weekend to spend time with Philip, don't waste it feeling sorry for yourself. Give him a chance to get settled in, calm down a little, and tomorrow you can work on making up for the past couple years, okay?"

Burr sat down next to Hamilton on the bed and put his arm on his back. It was an awkward gesture, one which was intended to be comforting but the fact that it was Burr made it seem strange. Aaron removed his hand rather quickly but he did not get up again.

They sat in silence for several minutes, both consumed by their own thoughts. Hamilton couldn't stop thinking about how this was the first time he'd ever mentioned anything personal in front of Burr. It was also the first time Burr had ever opened up to him. All of a sudden their strange partnership/rivalry felt a little more personal. 

Hamilton realized, quite suddenly, that he could no longer describe Aaron as just his co-worker. It was clear in his mind that they were friends now and that was a surprisingly comforting thought. Hamilton had lost so many of his college friends over the years and without Eliza's social group he was beginning to feel quite alone in New York.

Burr broke their silence, "I'm too lazy to make food so I'm going to order pizza," he said standing up, rather abruptly, "Once you're settled you can come down and help me order and I can get you some booze."

"I shouldn't drink…" Hamilton began.

"Not wasted," Burr laughed, "just numb."

"I don't know when I'm at one of the other," Alexander really wanted to be a responsible father but damn he also really wanted to drink.

"Well I've unfortunately seen you get drunk and I've got a pretty good idea of how much it takes to knock you out," said Burr, with a humorous tone of voice, "it's not much, mind you, but you can probably survive a glass of wine or two."

Hamilton smiled and got up, following Burr down to the kitchen. On the way out he heard hushed chatter from Theo's room. They must have been getting along then.

Only when they were both seated in silence across from the television with a glass of wine in their hands waiting for the pizza to arrive did Hamilton finally feel himself mentally exhale. He interrupted their silence, "hey, Aaron?"

"Yeah?" Burr asked without looking up.

"Thanks."

He didn't specify exactly what he was grateful for and Burr didn't ask. They both continued to stare at the television. It was truly the perfect friendship.


	2. Friday Evening

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: the end of this fic is slightly not safe for work, like the stuff that happens after the last line break. I was originally gonna make this fic M but I changed my mind and the ending of this is kinda on the boarder. It's super minor there's sexy talk and they get boners but like otherwise nothing comes of it. Just a warning.

When Theodosia had been around, she used to insist on the three of them eating supper as a family. It didn't matter that neither she nor Burr cooked much or that they were only a household of three; every day at 6:30 pm they would sit as closely as they could together in her massive dining room and eat take out food on her ex-husband's expensive china.

Burr liked that about her. Although he would tease her about the redundancy of the practice, he had always agreed with her.

"Families who eat together at the same time every day communicate better," she insisted and Burr just smiled while setting the table.

Now that she was gone, Burr had continued the practice almost religiously. Although he had since taught himself to cook to save them from having to order in each night and they no longer lived in a huge mansion uptown, he still had her ex-husband's china and he and Theo would still eat their supper together at 6:30 pm each day.

When she was younger the meals could get rather lonely. Burr was still in mourning during that time and he wasn't as good at getting Theo to eat as her mother had been. Oftentimes they would both leave the table crying, Burr gently bouncing his wailing daughter while quietly sobbing to himself. It got easier of course. He got pretty good at the whole fatherhood thing and the more Theo learned to speak, the more fun their meals had become.

She was such a bright girl. Every day she would come home from school bursting at the seams with new knowledge to share with her father. She didn't speak much about her friends, preferring to talk about the books they had read in class or the activities they'd done. Burr loved to hear it and, although the stories were simple and her vocabulary limited, he treasured every word she spoke.

In recent years she had gotten a little too smart for her own good and had begun to tease him about the strict dinner time, much like he had with Theodosia all those years ago. He would just shrug and give her the same response: "It gives us time to talk."

That being said, he would sometimes give in and let them eat takeout food on the couch in front of the television and when he did it was always a bit of a treat. Although he wanted to honour Theodosia's memory, there was something really relaxing about curling up with his daughter on the couch in front of cartoons.

If his wife were around she probably would have insisted that he make his guests eat at the dinner table properly but he doubted somehow that he could get through a meal with Hamilton and his son so, much to his daughters delight, they ate pizza in front of the television.

He had cleared off the couch but Philip and Theo insisted on sitting on the floor. Theo even went to the basement to find herself a sleeping bag so that she could be cocooned in one like Philip. There was something about sleeping bags that just excited young kids.

While they lay on the floor right in front of the screen, Burr and Hamilton ended up sharing the couch, keeping a comfortable distance between them while they watched Finding Nemo.

Burr wasn't upset by Hamilton's presence. The man had a testy pride that left him constantly on edge around Burr but, after years of working with him, Aaron had grown used to it. Hamilton's excitability made Burr feel like he was far calmer than he actually was; nobody could look anxious or flustered when in the presence of Alexander Hamilton.

Sure they fought and Burr suspected that Hamilton had always assumed there was some distance between them because of that; on top of the fact that they didn't communicate much, but Burr had always liked him. Arguing with him gave him a bit of an adrenaline rush and he liked the challenge. As for the lack of communication, Aaron just wasn't much of a talker.

He genuinely pitied the man and had invited him over for that reason alone, but he was happy to have him there. His house felt more lively than it had in forever and he could get used to simply having the other man on the same couch as him.

That was his initial feelings on the situation anyway. His opinion quickly changed when Hamilton began sneezing. He'd ignored the first three but on the fourth he whipped his head around to glare at the man, who shrugged sheepishly and pulled the box of tissues on the end table closer to him. Another fit of sneezing had Theo and Philip turning their heads in confusion.

"You're not bringing germs into my home are you?" Burr said making no attempt to his his annoyance.

"I'm fine," snapped Hamilton, "I'm not sick. Probably just the dust…"

"Maybe it's Catiline?" Philip suggested.

Hamilton spat the Pepsi he was drinking in shock. Fortunately for Burr's couch he already had a tissue covering his mouth and the damage was minimal. Both he and Theo chuckled at this.

"Who's Catiline," Hamilton said, his voice pained from the sneezing as well as getting Pepsi in his nose.

"Out cat," Theo chirped, "daddy chose the name so that we could just call her 'Cat' but I prefer Catiline."

Hamilton gave Burr a look that he chose to interpret as disgust, "hey don't mock me I got the name from you," he said holding his hands up defensively.

Hamilton clearly didn't forget the debauched roman senator whom he had compared Burr to back in the days when they were young law school graduates with a juvenile rivalry that burned like two pretentious wildfires. The accusation had pissed Burr off at the time, and he had probably punched Hamilton for it, but those days were long behind him. It was more of a funny memory by the time he went out and adopted a cat to try and fill the void that Theodosia had left in his life.

However, apparently Hamilton was not upset about the irony of the name, "you didn't tell me you had a fucking cat!" He snapped, getting cut off by another sneeze.

"I would appreciate you not swearing in front of my daughter," Burr chastised him.

"I'm allergic to cats, Aaron," Hamilton said giving him a pained look.

"Of course you are," Burr sighed to himself, "look your sheets are washed so no cat on those, I'll keep our door closed and we'll get you a pack of reactin tomorrow."

Alexander wasn't listening, "of course you're a cat person," he muttered to himself.

Burr laughed at this, "you better watch out Alexander, Catiline's a real bitch too."

"Who's swearing now?" Theo asked him, to which Burr only shrugged apologetically.

Philip, on the other hand, looked concerned, "you'll be ok, right dad?"

Hamilton smiled as wide as he could at his son, "I'll be fine Philip, I'm not gonna get hurt by a little bit of allergies."

"Not entirely true," Burr muttered, "You're gonna whine about it all night and I'm going to end up hurting you."

"Well I'm not the one who didn't warn his house guests about his pets," Hamilton hissed back at him, "don't you think that's a little rude."

"Well, Alex," Burr said, "you see, I don't see you so much as a house guest, rather more of a squatter I am helping out of the kindness of my heart."

"I don't even know why I'm surprised you're a cat person," Hamilton moaned

"Beggars cannot be choosers, Alexander" Aaron replied. He liked the way Hamilton's face got progressively redder the more annoyed he got. Unfortunately his retort was cut off by another fit of sneezing.

Burr started to laugh at him when he realized the kids had paused the movie and were watching the whole exchange with wide eyes. Theo looked confused and poor Philip just looked hurt.

"You're not gonna divorce Aaron as well, are you?" the boy asked, trembling like he was close to tears.

"Divorce?" Aaron said, giving Hamilton a curious look.

His colleague ignored him, looking incredibly upset by the question and slid down next to Philip, wrapping his arms around the boy.

"Shh Shh don't worry Phil. Aaron and I are just playing. No one's getting divorced. Just a little argument," Hamilton, who always wore his emotions on his sleeve and was doing a horrible job of looking comforting. His flush was gone and his face had grown quite pale. He was shaking like he did at work in the week that preceded his divorce, "it's fine Philip, people just fight sometimes," he repeated, sounding more like he was trying to convince himself.

Burr felt bad for the guy. Poor Alexander was apparently really bad at being the emotional rock, and he was clearly in a far worse state than Philip who just looked frightened.

Aaron couldn't stop himself from intervening. He put a hand on Philip's shoulder and the boy looked up at him. He was completely shocked by his father's breakdown.

"What your dad is trying to say is that we always argue, the same way you and your brothers do, but it's never about the important stuff. When adults fight about cats, we're just being silly, it doesn't mean we're mad at each other." He gave the boy the most honest smile he could give.

Philip thought about this for a second, "so you don't hate each other?"

"Nope," Burr said, patting his back assuredly, "but it's wrong for two adults to fight over cats when they're supposed to be setting an example so your father and I are going to go make some popcorn and apologize to each other like adults should do," he glared at Hamilton until the other man nodded as well.

Hamilton looked relieved and allowed Aaron to lead him out of the living room to the kitchen.

"Yikes," was all Aaron could say as Hamilton flopped down in one of the kitchen chairs and pulled his legs up to his chest.

"Please don't comment," he mumbled into his knees.

"You're an absolute mess," Burr stated.

"Like you could do better…" he muttered back.

"I already did better," Burr replied, leaning against the counter and watching the man.

"I'm loosing my fucking mind Aaron," Hamilton said wiping the beginnings of tears out of his eyes.

"I wouldn't put it that way, but I'm also not gonna tell you that you did a stellar job out there," Burr said crossing his arms. He pitied Hamilton but that didn't mean he was going to sugarcoat that sad display.

"I didn't know what to do!" His friend said, choking back a sob, "that's all he knows about me Burr! He think that I ruin every relationship I'm in! That all I do is argue and pick fights!"

"Shh Alex, calm down," Burr hushed. He wasn't sure what he could do to comfort the man. As good as he was with children, Aaron had literally no idea how to respond to emotional adults.

"Look Alex," his mind fumbled for words of comfort, "divorce is hard on kids, you can't beat yourself up about it; trust me it won't help."

"I didn't even want to get divorced Burr! I–"

"–I don't give a shit what you felt Hamilton." Burr interrupted, still trying to keep his voice low, "the point isn't what you wanted. You and Eliza split, I don't care who's fault it was and neither does Philip. Yes it's hard on him but so was living in a home with a dad who rarely came home and a mother who was constantly worried sick about him."

He had to pause to calm himself down. Fortunately Hamilton didn't try and interject, "Philip loves you Hamilton, I promise he does. He just doesn't know you. You've got to show him that you're alright and everything will be fine. You've got to be strong for him, even when you feel like crying."

"That's really hard," Hamilton said, wiping his eyes.

"Trust me, I know," Burr said

"You're better at this than me," his friend commented.

"I never thought you'd admit I was better than you at anything," Burr chuckled, "but it took practice."

"So what's the best thing I can do?" Hamilton asked.

"Nothing. Go back in there, say we made up… for the love of god please explain to him that we aren't married… and try to finish Finding Nemo without crying too much over how relatable you find it."

Hamilton punched him in the arm in mock anger but it barely hurt because he broke into another sneezing fit before his fist connected with Burr.

"I can't believe you named your stupid cat 'Catiline'," he mumbled into his tissue.

 

* * *

Catiline was a bitch. Hamilton wasn't even surprised that Burr had adopted a black cat with mismatched eyes as his companion; a demonic pet for a devious owner.

She slunk into the living room while Dory and Marlin were struggling to escape the stomach of a whale. Although Catiline had a limp, Hamilton would tell himself that she was crept into the room like a huntress. It was easier than admitting he had gotten too emotionally invested in a movie about talking fish to focus on his surroundings. Regardless of the reason he did not hear her approach until she had jumped up on the back of the couch and hissed right in his ear.

Alex fell out of his seat with a shriek that caused Burr to laugh so hard he choked on his popcorn. Hamilton lay on the floor in shock while Philip and Theo tried to explain to him that he had taken Catiline's spot on the couch; all the while Burr was coughing up a popcorn kernel stuck in his trachea.

Catiline curled up in his seat during the the commotion and immediately began licking her crotch.

"No way! That's my seat!" Hamilton snapped reaching for the cat. She hissed and scratched his outstretched hand.

"Ow fuck," Hamilton muttered jumping back and clutching his bleeding hand.

Burr couldn't even berate him for sweating because he was still laughing and trying to stop himself from chocking.

"Burr stop laughing and control your demon cat!" Hamilton snapped at him, "get her off the couch."

"Look Alex, if you can't fight off a cat with a limp I can't help you," Burr snickered back.

"That's so strange," Philip said in awe, "she's was very nice to me."

"That's because all cats are liars a tricksters and they pretend to like you as long as they can get something out of you," Hamilton explained trying to shake off his embarrassment.

"Maybe she just thought you were going to hit her," his son suggested.

"I was," Hamilton said glaring at the cat.

"That's not nice dad," Philip scolded him.

"Not nice? She kicked me out of me seat!" Hamilton voice cracked a little in fury, "this cat thinks she deserves the that spot more than a person!"

"Technically the cat is a more valued member of this household than you are," Burr piped up, finally dislodging the popcorn from his throat.

"Does the cat pay rent?" Hamilton retorted.

"The cat made you scream like a frightened old woman, Alex. You can't put a price on that," Burr chuckled running his hand down Catiline's back. She purred affectionately.

Theodosia and Philip were both laughing at him now and Hamilton felt his face flushing uncontrollably. He wanted to slap that stupid grin right off Aaron's face but he forced himself to stay silent; he would rather make his son laugh at him than cry again.

"You should wash that before it swells," Burr pointed at his hand, still grinning.

Hamilton was more than happy to get out of that room. He shot Burr a look on his way out and mouthed "I'll get you back for this."

Burr rolled simply his eyes and went back to petting Catiline, looking every bit the classic movie villain that he was.

 

* * *

Philip did not stay awake for the rest of the movie and ended up falling asleep in his father's lap not too long after he returned from the washroom.

Although Hamilton's hand had swelled something awful and he was still fuming over being outsmarted by a cat, Burr had a feeling he was thrilled to be on the floor cuddling with his son.

When he wasn't glaring at Burr, Alexander had a huge stupid grin plastered on his face as he ran his hand through Philip's messy brown curls. The situation comforted Burr somehow and he suspected Theo felt the same because she gave him a knowing look when she noticed they were both watching the scene.

When the credits rolled, Hamilton got up immediately to carry Philip to bed. When he was out of earshot Theo turned to Burr and asked timidly, "could we read a book down here before bed?"

"It's past your bedtime Theo…"

"I know," she said, "but I think they want to be alone."

Burr felt his heart flutter at how observant and kind his daughter was, "sure Theo, bring one over."

She wandered over to the shelf and grabbed a book not from the pile of children's books he had laid out for her and snuggled next to him on the couch.

"Alice in Wonderland?" Burr asked, "I was going to read this to you when you were older."

"It's a kids book dad," Theo pointed out.

"Yeah but it's for older kids. You might not understand it.

"I want to try," she said.

"Fine," said Burr, "but only one chapter tonight and you must promise you'll ask me when you don't understand something. If you're not understanding what you read, there's no point to it."

"Don't worry, I will," Theo promised.

Burr couldn't remember now how he'd ever thought that the love he felt in his past romances and friendships could ever be compared to the love he felt for his daughter. He now understood why he had pitied Hamilton to the point of letting the obnoxious, loud-mouthed man into his home; losing Theodosia, as he lost Philip, would have killed him.

 

* * *

Burr felt abnormally tired when he shut Theo's door behind her. He diagnosed it as social exhaustion from the extra company; Aaron wasn't much of a people person.

Hamilton must've already turned in because he had left the sleeping Philip alone on the lower bunk of Theo's bed. His daughter didn't seem to care that it was her place and climbed into the top bunk without a single complaint.

Burr remembered buying that bed for her. It had been almost a year after his wife had died and she was outgrowing her crib. Burr remembered feeling so stressed out while pushing a crying baby in a stroller around the IKEA that he'd nearly had a breakdown. He hadn't yet gotten used to the fact that Theo was aging so fast and he had no idea what she would need and when during her transition from infancy to childhood. Ironically he ended up calling Eliza.

He had planned to call Hamilton, who had been a father slightly longer than he had and was his only contact at the time, but it had been Eliza who picked up the phone. She had been a lifesaver that day, explaining to him what furniture to upgrade and when. She was the one who had suggested getting a bunk bed even though he only had one child.

"Its a good investment, Burr," she told him, "if you don't have a lot of space in your house it will be a lifesaver when she starts to have sleepovers or if you have family staying over. On top of that, she will think it's cool and when she gets older you can take out the bottom bunk and convert it into a desk." She gave him the same sort of practical advice for all the other purchases he'd made that day and it had been under her instruction that he had furnished his daughters entire bedroom.

It was the only conversation Burr had ever had with her but he remembered it fondly. When he first noticed Hamilton's unfaithfulness, he had always assumed his wife must have been completely ignorant or a pushover, but during that conversation he realized she was the perfect mix of kind, confident, and self-assured. Hamilton may have been his friend but he had been so proud of her when she'd divorced him. She was too good for him.

He had never told Hamilton about the exchange and assumed Eliza had never mentioned it either. Burr decided to keep that information to himself. It was a fond memory, but he couldn't imagine Hamilton would want to hear it, and who else would care?

Speaking of Hamilton, Burr was momentarily confused when he opened his own bedroom door and noticed the futon was empty. Turns out that asshole had the nerve to fall asleep in his own bed.

"Hamilton move," he ordered standing next to the sleeping figure with his hands on his hips.

Hamilton did not respond.

"Don't pretend to be asleep, I know you don't sleep that still."

Still nothing.

Burr gave the blanket mass a hard shove.

"Go away, Burr, I'm trying to sleep," Hamilton mumbled into the pillow.

"This isn't your damn bed Hamilton," Burr hissed, struggling to keep his voice below a whisper.

"It is now. I've had a long day Burr I think I deserve this."

Burr scoffed, "you don't deserve shit, you'd be sleeping in the fucking street without me."

"Burr I have cried twice today and my hand looks like a fucking tomato thanks to your stupid cat, I'm not leaving the bed."

"Last chance Hamilton," Burr warned.

"Fuck off Aaron," the other man mockingly echoed his tone.

"Suit yourself," Burr muttered and he climbed into the bed with him.

"What the fuck are you doing!" Hamilton snapped, turning over in shock.

"Going to sleep," replied Burr, "in my own fucking bed."

"Get out!" Hamilton snapped trying to shove him out. Burr did not let himself get flipped and he gripped the bars of his headboard tightly to further anchor himself in position.

"Burr!" Hamilton groaned angrily, throwing all his entire body weight against Aaron's.

Hamilton didn't weight much but neither did Burr so, although he didn't budge, the force was sufficient to made his arms ache from the strain and the awkward angle. Still he held on and began giggling to himself about the absurdity this situation.

"Why are you laughing you sick fuck!" Hamilton hissed. He was on top of Burr now, trying to wrestle his arms off free from their grip on the headboard. Burr let him wrench his left arm free only so that he could jab his fingers into Hamilton's lower side.

It wasn't a move meant to cause pain. Burr had grown up with cousins and had learned how to fight in a way that caused irritation but not hurt. He knew, from having experienced it many times himself, that pinching the side of someone's stomach was a surefire way to make that person shout in surprise.

Of course Hamilton didn't shout; he let out another ridiculously feminine shriek and Burr took advantage of the other man's momentary shock to grab him and pull them both onto the floor.

"You fight like a bitch," Hamilton panted, letting go of him and rolling over onto his back to catch his breath.

"You scream like one," Burr chuckled, still amused by the whole ordeal.

"Who the fuck pinches someone's side like that?" Hamilton asked.

"My cousin taught me that one," Burr said with a laugh, "I used to use it a lot because it was easy to do if you're small and it doesn't hurt the person so my uncle couldn't beat my ass for it." Burr worried for a second that he had disclosed too much information about his childhood but fortunately Hamilton didn't notice.

"It's a slimy move," the other man simply said, picking himself up.

"I'm still sleeping in there, whether you like it or not." Burr informed him, sitting up and rubbing his eyes.

"Even if I do this?" Hamilton asked, removing his shirt and tossing it at Burr's face before climbing back into bed.

"You misunderstand how little I care about seeing your lanky figure, Alex," Burr snorted, "contrary to popular belief, I can recognize whether a situation is sexual or not."

"I don't believe that for a damn second Hamilton scoffed.

"Do you genuinely believe you are less sexually fucked up than I am?" Burr asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Of course! I think you're a lecherous sex-addict and I firmly believe you partake in orgies during your spare time," Hamilton was sitting up now so he could insult Burr to his face.

"Well isn't that the pot calling kettle black," Aaron laughed, "at least I wasn't married during my orgies."

"At least I didn't pay for my orgies!" Hamilton nearly shouted back, covering his mouth quickly when he realized how loud he was talking.

After confirming that they were not heard, Burr whispered, "so you genuinely think I'm going to want to fuck you just because you're in my bed with no shirt on?"

"I think you'd have a hard-on before either of us was even asleep and you'll jack-off thinking about what might have been," Hamilton hissed back, as though challenging Burr.

"Funny," Burr said, "I think you would fare far worse than I would in the same situation.

"Think what you want, if you get a boner, you have to leave this bed," Hamilton told him, waving his good hand dismissively and lying back down.

"Is that the game were going to play?" Burr asked with a sneer.

"Game? What game do you think we're playing you salacious creep?" Hamilton seemed to think he was getting creative with his insults.

"You'll figure it out," Burr replies, taking off his own shirt and climbing into the bed with Hamilton.

The both lay as far away from each other as they could. Aaron knew Alexander was being a petulant asshole but, dammit, he was going to win full rights to his own bed, even if it required sacrificing some of his own dignity.

He waited several minutes. Burr could feel Hamilton's tension radiating off him and he knew man was definitely not asleep. He was waiting to see what Aaron had planned

Burr waited till the silence had truly settled before making his move. He reached down to the band of his boxers.

"What the hell are you doing?" Hamilton muttered next to him, noticing the movement immediately.

"Just getting comfy babe go back to sleep," Burr said mockingly.

He pulled his underwear off. It was an awkward movement while under the covers but he wasn't exactly trying to be sneaky about it.

"Are you actually naked?" Hamilton asked, turning over to look at Aaron in shock.

Burr responded by spinning his boxers around his finger a few times and shooting him a grin.

Hamilton glared at him, "that's not even remotely sexy."

"Don't worry babe, this isn't sexual at all, remember? Just two guys sharing a bed together. And it is hot in here, you know…" Burr cooed. It was actually fucking cold but it wasn't as though Hamilton would notice. His body temperature always seemed to be far higher than Aaron's anyway and it was only increasing with his embarrassment. The thing is, Burr may have been the kinkier one, but at the end of the day he had his emotions under complete control. Alexander did not.

Hamilton's face was bright red but he took up the challenge, "sure," he muttered removing his own boxers, "just good friends."

"Best friends," Burr corrected, running his fingers seductively along Hamilton's neck. The man wasn't facing him but Burr could feel the heat coming off his skin and felt how he tensed up immediately under Aaron's touch.

"Stop that!" Hamilton snapped.

"Stop what?" Burr asked, ghosting his fingers along Hamilton's shoulder blades, "you can leave if you're uncomfortable, Alexander. You're a free man."

"I will fight you out of this bed," Alexander threatened.

"We're both completely naked, do you actually believe you can make this less awkward by trying to wrestle me?" Burr pointed out.

Hamilton was clearly fuming now and Burr decided to let up for a moment. He flipped himself back over so that they were no longer facing each other. He didn't know what he planned to do next but it seemed best to let Hamilton stew; it wasn't as though either man had any intention of sleeping yet.

His back was only turned for a moment when Hamilton decided to fight back. Burr did not hear him move closer until he felt Hamilton's breath on the back of his neck and nearly jumped out of his skin.

"You seem tense babe," Alexander cooed, his usual nasally voice dropped to a lower tone that actually sounded… sexy? Somehow? Burr said nothing, though he suspected Hamilton could tell how on edge he was.

Aaron tried to mentally compose himself but Alexander actually leaned in closer to kiss the back of his neck.

Burr was suddenly aware of every nerve on his damn body. He had two choices: stay tense to avoid actual arousal, or relax into it so Hamilton wouldn't have the satisfaction of seeing him squirm. Of course, a logical man would just order him out of the bed and threaten to call the cops. Then again a logical man would not have taken off his pants and gotten into the bed in the first place. Logic be damned, Burr was going to find a way to win this stupid argument or he was going to end up fucking Hamilton.

Then he felt it. Checkmate. Alexander-fucking-Hamilton had a boner.

Hamilton must've hoped he hadn't noticed it and tried to pulled away but Aaron had already turned around to grin at him.

"You like this game, don't you Alexander?" he sneered, grinning wider as Hamilton's panic grew.

"Fuck you," he snapped trying to escape the situation faster and practically falling out of the bed.

"You're welcome to do so," Burr cooed back, propping himself up on one elbow so he could watch Hamilton fumble with his clothes in the dark.

"I hate you," Hamilton muttered, more to himself than to Burr. He climbed into the futon. Aaron was victorious.

"If you have a wet dream on my bedsheets you're cleaning them," Burr called out.

Hamilton only groaned.

Burr stretched out, covering as much of his own bed as he could and relishing his triumph over Hamilton.

The irony of it was that all Hamilton needed to do was reach out a little and he would've noticed Burr was in the same situation as he was.

But he hadn't. Aaron had won his bed. Of course it was at the cost of having to sleep with an erection but he could live with that.

What he couldn't live with was the emotion that had begun to form in his mind. A strange feeling that left him both sleepless and far too aware of the other man in the room with him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I may have failed a biology test because of this chapter...
> 
> Edit I'm a fucking liar i did great on bio. half the questions were about genetics and none of them were about fungus-like protists so I'm in the clear. Punnet squares are my jam yo!


	3. Saturday AKA Chuck-E-Cheese AU

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The long awaited Chuck-E-Cheese au.  
> I did not proofread this as much as I liked to because it was just so fucking long, so sorry about that.  
> Disclaimer: I have not been to a Chuck-E-Cheese since I was like six so if you have been to one recently sorry for anything I get wrong. I researched what I could but apparently the modern Chuck-E-Cheeses are way different than they were when i was a kid (like apparently they've got wii games and shit?) Idk i wanted to keep it old school wherever possible.

Hamilton was still hard when he woke up and his back ached from where the futon springs had dug into it. It was better than the office couch, he supposed, but the the combination of his still-swollen hand, the morning wood, and the shame of having been caught by Aaron definitely made that night one of the worst in his life.

  
He lifted his head as slowly as he could to glance at Burr's bed. It was empty. He moaned and lay down again. Hamilton had no idea what time it was but it felt late. The only clock in the room was on Burr’s end table and he couldn't see it from where he slept.

 

He heard faintly the laughter of children coming from downstairs. Alexander realized with a start that if his son was awake, it was quite possible the boy would come in to see him and potentially notice his predicament.

 

He tried to get up so fast that he fell out of the bed again, pulling nearly all the blankets along with him. So much for subtlety. He stumbled as quickly as he could towards the security of the washroom.

 

Hamilton locked the door behind him, turned on the sink, and immediately shoved his face into the torrent of cold water. He couldn't help but notice himself in the mirror. God he looks like shit. His face looked sickeningly pale and the bags under his eyes were so dark he looked liked he'd been punched. He also really needed to shave.

 

He wondered for a moment if he ought to use Aaron's shower. That would probably be the best place to finish himself off without getting caught, but there was only one towel in the room and he wasn't about to go searching the house for another one.

 

Yesterday he would not have hesitated to use Aaron's towel, if only to piss the other man off, but now it felt more like a perverted move.

 

Hamilton mentally beat himself up for being so stupid. After so many years of fighting with Burr, it had finally started to feel like they were maybe becoming friends. Now Hamilton realized that a line had been crossed. He didn't know what Burr was going to say to him when he went downstairs, but he couldn't imagine it would be anything good. To think, after accusing Aaron of debauchery so many times and it had been Alexander’s own sex drive that had fucked up their relationship so royally.

 

In the end he didn't need the shower; the time he spent staring at his own reflection and wallowing in his own humiliation was boner-kill enough. He spend the rest of his washroom time desperately trying to make himself look less like death.

 

* * *

 

 

Aaron had never gone to sleep. Of course, it wasn't as though he had ever had good sleeping habits anyway and so the exhaustion didn't bother him. He found just the act of lying in bed to be rest enough.

 

The downside was that by early morning, he was absolutely bored out of his mind. So much so that he had flipped himself over to the other side of the bed to watch Hamilton sleep.

 

He had done it while only partially awake so he did not consider the gesture to be creepy, at least not intentionally. Still the memory of it was still irritating him.

 

Hamilton looked so much nicer asleep, when he couldn't open his mouth or scowl at everything. Oddly the other man must've still been hot because he had not slept with his shirt on and his sheets did not cover his back.

 

As his eyes adjusted and as the first light of morning poured in through the window, Burr found himself more and more unable to look away. It was a shame he couldn't see Alexander's face but even his skinny back started to look beautiful under the light of the sunrise. His golden brown skin was as adorably freckled as his face, and his mess of brown hair glowed almost auburn when the sun hit it.

 

That's how Burr realized he had to get out of there fast. Unfortunately, he was even more bored in his kitchen. He tried to force the thought out of his mind that he was genuinely attracted to Hamilton. In his youth, just seeing the other man’s face had been enough to make him furious; there was no attraction back then he knew it. When they'd met again years later and agreed to open a law practice, again there was no attraction there. Not even friendship; just two old nemesis who had finally come to begrudgingly respect each other.

 

Burr found it funny that he had been both an enemy, a friend, and a colleague to Hamilton during the all the time they had known one another, yet at all three stages of their relationship, they had argued incessantly. Perhaps he’d always felt like they were still rivals at heart and thus why he could never consider Hamilton a viable option for dating.

 

They had crossed a line last night. Burr had been too kind and Hamilton had been too much of a flirt and now their relationship had changed once again to something that he didn't want to try and describe. Burr shook these thoughts out of his head. If it weren't so early in the morning he would probably try drink these ideas away; instead he made himself and entire pot of coffee.

 

The caffein made himself feel better but it was also clearing his head which he really didn't need right now either. In a desperate attempt to be otherwise occupied, he decided to make pancakes.

 

* * *

 

 

When Hamilton finally left the washroom and went downstairs he was greeted with the most abnormally domestic scene he'd ever seen: Philip and Theo were both chattering away happily at the kitchen table while Aaron made pancakes in his pyjamas.

 

“Daddy daddy!” Philip squealed the second he saw Hamilton and he ran over and threw himself around his father leg.

 

“Hey little buddy,” was the best greeting Hamilton could muster in his groggy state. He gently pulled Philip off his leg so he could hug him properly.

 

“Mommy’s making waffles!” his son chirped excitedly.

 

“There's so much wrong with that sentence…” Hamilton heard Aaron mumble.

 

“ _Aaron_ is actually making pancakes,” Hamilton told him, putting extra stress on the “Aaron”. He still was putting off telling Philip that he wasn't actually married to Burr because the young boy seemed so happy about it.

 

“Theo and I are drawing,” Philip said proudly, leading his father by the hand over to the kitchen table which was covered in printer paper and crayola markers. Theodosia's paper had a very detailed drawing of a flower that she kept meticulously adding petals to. She looked up from her work to give Hamilton her trademark half smile before focusing again on the flower. Philip, on the other hand, had used almost five papers already and had covered them with very random squiggles. He did not try to show them individually to Hamilton but just pointed to the pile as a whole.

 

“These are very nice Philip,” Hamilton told him holding up two of the squiggles, “what are they?”

 

“They're art!” Philip replied happily.

 

Hamilton smiled and handed them back, “they sure are.”

 

Philip beamed and resumed drawing. Hamilton looked over at Burr who seemed very focused on the task of making pancakes. He got up and walked over to him.

 

“How can I help?” He asked, still nervous about what Burr was thinking of him after last night.

 

“I've got it, Alex, go colour a picture or something,” Burr replied dismissively.

 

“I want to help,” Hamilton insisted.

 

“I said I'm fine.”

 

“I'm not taking no for an answer, Aaron.”

 

Burr signed despondently, “you can set the table when I'm closer to being done.”

 

If he thought that would make Hamilton leave he was dead wrong. After a few more moments of silently watching him, Hamilton said, “I didn't know you could cook.”

 

“It's just pancakes,” Burr muttered.

 

“Still it's more than I can do,” Hamilton told him trying to make conversation.

 

Burr just nodded, still not looking at him.

 

Hamilton glanced over at the children, confirming that they were still engrossed in their colouring before leaning in closer to Burr and whispering, “are you just going to ignore me then?”

 

Aaron visibly winced, “please, Alex, just go colour for a bit.” He was still avoiding eye contact.

 

That stung. Boy had he fucked up now; Aaron clearly wanted him to leave.

 

“Should I take Philip to a hotel then,” he asked.

 

At that, Burr actually turned to look at him with a confused expression, “I'm not kicking you out Alex, I'm just… I'm just tired is all.”

 

“Really,” Hamilton felt relief flooding over him, “so you're not upset about last night?”

 

“Last night?” Burr asked.

 

“When we fought and-”

 

“Fight? That was just a joke fight, Alexander!” Burr cut him off, “sure you're a dick for trying to steal my bed but it was just a petty little argument” Aaron forced a laugh.

 

Hamilton was completely confused. Did Aaron really not remember? “But during the fight, in the bed when I-”

 

“Honestly Alex I thought you got out of bed when I took my underwear off. I fell asleep and when I woke up you were out,” Burr explained to him.

 

“What are you talking about?” Alex asked, keeping his shocked voice as low as possible, “you were still up, you made fun of me.”

 

“Hm it's possible I was talking in my sleep,” Burr suggested.

 

“Sleep-talking?” Hamilton didn't really believe that.

 

“Yes it happens sometimes, I'm a rather light sleeper you know?” Aaron explained, “my poor wife used to complain about it incessantly.”

 

Hamilton felt immediately relieved. So Burr didn't remember anything? Perfect, the friendship was safe. Of course, at the back of his mind, Hamilton didn't believe that for a second, but he decided to ignore his instincts in favor of the theory that made him feel better.

 

“Man I really ought to listen to you sleep more often,” said Hamilton with a chuckle, “I must miss some pretty funny subconscious dialogue.”

 

“Go colour Hamilton!” Burr ordered with a false smile and this time Alex obeyed.

 

The chair next to Philip had several boxes stacked on it, topped with some of the crayons his son was currently using so he slid into the chair next to Theo. She did not look up at him, still focusing on her flower. The patterns on it were quite impressive and she just kept adding more petals each time she would finish a row. It was quite calming to watch.

 

Philip also looked occupied so Hamilton just watched them, rather than drawing anything himself. Suddenly a thought dawned on him. He leant in close to Theo.

 

“That's a really nice drawing,” he told her in a low voice, glancing up at Aaron. Over the hiss of the frying pan Burr heard nothing and did not glance at him.

 

“Thank you,” Theo responded without looking up from it.

 

“Did your father teach you to draw?” He asked.

 

“No. He's not very good at it,” she said, wrinkling her nose, “but he likes it when I draw and he sits with me.”

 

“What else do you two do together?” Hamilton had to admit he was genuinely intrigued by the image of Aaron as a father but  he also had an answer to extort from this girl.

 

“We read,” she said, “he reads me books before bed and I read him books after school. I'm not as good as he is.” She finished sheepishly.

 

“Why does he read you books before bed?”

 

“It helps me sleep.”

 

“Do you have trouble sleeping?” Hamilton was getting closer to the answer he needed.

 

“Sometimes when I was little,” she said, “I was scared of the dark.”

 

“What did your dad do when you couldn't sleep?”

 

“Sometimes I would sleep in his bed. Sometimes he sleeps in the top bunk.”

 

Bingo, “did your dad ever talk in his sleep?” Hamilton asked her.

 

She raised her eyebrow, looking frighteningly like her father when doing so, “that's a weird question…”

 

“I just want to know,” Hamilton assured her, “in case he keeps me up at night.”

 

“Did he keep you up last night?” She was clearly trying to decipher why he would ask such a strange question.

 

“I went to sleep before him last night,” was Hamilton's excuse, “but I was very tired, I don't usually go to sleep before him.”

 

“What are you two talking about?” Aaron interrupted, giving Hamilton a dark look that chilled him to the bone.

 

“Mr Hamilton was just asking about you,” Theo replied.

 

“Oh really? And what did he want to know about me?” Hamilton had never seen that look on Burr before but it was truly nightmarish; he feared for his life.

 

“He wanted to know if you taught me to draw,” she replied. If this were another child Hamilton would've assumed that that was all she had retained from their conversation, but something about Theo made him certain that she had knowingly withheld the rest of what he’d said.

 

“He didn't ask you anything else?” Burr asked her, giving her a stern look that said, _you better not lie to me_.

 

“Nothing important,” she assured him, smiling brightly. The girl knew how to tell half-truths; she had not lied but she had disclosed nothing. She was truly Aaron Burr’s daughter.

 

Burr was still doubtful, “it sounded like you were talking a while.”

 

Theo just gave a small chuckle, “don't worry daddy, it's like you said: Mr Hamilton uses many words but says almost nothing.”

 

“That hurts Burr,” Hamilton chastised him, “you can't just go about bashing me in front of your kids!” He would've been more upset if Theo hadn't been defending his case.

 

“I doubt you've told your son much better about me,” Burr retorted. To prove this point he asked Philip, “what has your dad told you about me?”

 

“I don't know you,” was the boy’s response.

 

“Sorry let me rephrase that: do you know the name Aaron Burr?”

 

Philip wrinkled his nose, “that was the name of the dragon in the story Daddy told me before bed.”

 

Burr looked oddly proud about that and gave Hamilton, “see?” Hamilton just rolled his eyes and Aaron went back to cooking.

 

After a few more minutes of silence, Theo leaned in closer to Hamilton and whispered, “Don't worry Mr Hamilton, dad is the quietest sleeper I know.”

 

Hamilton felt his heart drop again. So Burr did know! But why hide it? It was such an easy source of mockery. Aaron may not be the type of man to actively seek out fights like Hamilton, but he never liked to miss a chance to gloat. It was all very puzzling.

 

Apparently Theodosia wasn't done, “Mr Hamilton I heard you scream last night. Were you ok?”

 

“I didn't scream,” Hamilton told her, still consumed by his own worries.

 

“Mr Hamilton, I helped you because I don't like it when my father lies. So you're not allowed to lie to me either.” She told him sternly.

 

“Theo, what do you want to know,” he asked her, exasperated.

 

“My dad likes you Mr Hamilton. Philip says you like my dad. Because of that I like you too. I want you to know can trust me, Mr Hamilton.” She stated holding out her tiny hand.

 

Hamilton shook it, surprised by the odd girl. She gave him a smile and returned to her picture. Hamilton somehow got the sense that she knew far more about him than he did about her.

 

* * *

 

 

Their breakfast was quiet but not awkward; at least it wasn't for Burr. Neither he nor his daughter felt the need to talk much while they were eating and were used to chewing in silence. Philip also seemed to be perfectly content with the silence, which Aaron assumed had something to do with his mother not being much of a talker either.

 

 _Of course Eliza wasn't a talker_ ; he snorted to himself, _it was a wonder she got a word in edgewise if she had to eat her meals with Alexander Hamilton._

 

He was the only one who did not seem comfortable with the silence, and Burr could see him twitching in his seat, eyes flicking from person to person as if expecting at least one of them to talk. Oddly enough, he said nothing himself. Aaron couldn't think of a sensible reason for that and it was hard to read Alexander when he was trying to avoid eye contact with him.

 

Burr knew his lie was bullshit but he also knew that Hamilton was quite gullible and would believe what he wanted to believe. Both of them wanted to forget about this whole disaster and Aaron had simply provided an out. He wouldn't be surprised if Hamilton has already convinced himself that his... predicament... was the result of the fighting adrenaline and not arousal, as was the case.

 

And who could fault Burr for wanting to keep things as they were? Hamilton was going to be staying in his room for two more nights and he would still have to see the man at work each morning. It was better they both forget about that night and conjure up their own false version of events to preserve their ridiculous pride.

 

Despite that logic, Aaron still felt guilty.

 

Finally Hamilton couldn't stand the silence anymore, “so Philip,” he blurted out so suddenly that his son jumped a little, “what do you want to do today?”

 

“What's Theo doing?” Philip asked, his mouth still full of pancake.

 

“Theodosia and I usually go to the museum on Saturdays,” Burr answered for his daughter who was also still eating, “alone,” he added.

 

“That sounds boring,” Philip snorted derisively.

 

“Well they can go to the museum if they want,” Hamilton said, “we’ll go somewhere else. Anywhere you want Philip I promise.”

 

Philip thought for a minute, “Disneyland!” He shouted banging his fork on the table.

 

“Disneyland is far away Philip,” Hamilton told him, sounding equally disappointed, “I promise I'll take you there someday but for now you have to pick a place in New York.”

 

Again Philip had to think about it. He began stroking his chin dramatically so everyone could tell he was thinking. Finally he got an idea, “Chuck-E-Cheese!”

 

Hamilton's face fell. Burr almost felt bad for the man; he couldn't think of any place he'd less rather be than a greasy restaurant full of screaming kids and people in creepy mouse costumes. Still Hamilton managed to force out a smile, “alright Phil, Chuck-E-Cheese it is.”

 

“Yay!” Philip shouted jumping out of his chair to fist bump the air.

 

“Dad,” Theo’s small piped up under the excitement.

 

“Yes Theo?”

 

“Um, could we go to Chuck-E-Cheese as well?” She asked, much to Burr’s dismay.

 

“Theo, you don't want to go to that place. Come on it's museum day,” he pleaded, desperately.

 

“Lame…” Hamilton whispered, pretending to cough.

 

“Museums are fun dad, but Philip is staying over so it's the only time we can go out together. Plus I'd like to try something different,” she reasoned.

 

“Yeah I want Theo to come!” Philip said jumping up and down.

 

“Yeah Burr, let Theo come,” Hamilton echoed sarcastically with a smug grin on his face.

 

Aaron's world was crashing down around him. Hamilton and his son were corrupting his brilliant daughter with promises of fast food and dirty ball pits. He couldn't refuse but God at what cost? He took a deep breath, “fine. We’ll go.”

 

Theo beamed and high fived Philip. Hamilton leaned back in his chair, still grinning like an asshole. Burr kicked him in the shin under the table. This man was ruining his life.

 

* * *

 

 

There was only one child’s seat in Burr’s car, to Hamilton dismay, “what are we going to do with Philip?” He began panicking.

 

“It's a short drive Hamilton he’ll be fine,” Burr muttered. It was too early in the morning for this.

 

“My son could die Burr!” Hamilton pointed out, “what if he tells Eliza I let him sit in the car without a proper seat? We should really be using the subway!”

 

“For the love of God Hamilton we're not switching subway lines four times to get to the fucking Chuck-E-Cheese!”

 

Hamilton rode in the back with Philip on his lap. Burr didn't bother pointing out that it was far more dangerous to be doubled-belted with a child than it was to have Philip sit on a textbook or something. Hamilton probably knew that and was just trying to satiate his damnable martyr complex. At least it kept him out of the front.

 

“Aren't you going to play music?” Philip asked after several minutes of blessed silence. Burr turned on the radio, already set to the classical station.

 

“Lame!” Hamilton hooted again from the back and he and Philip bumped fists.

 

“Alright, what would you have me play?” Burr asked through gritted teeth. He was gripping the steering wheel so tightly his knuckles had turned white.

 

“Pass me your aux cord I'll let Phil choose from my phone,” Alex replied.

 

Philip played ABBA and both he and his father sung along at the top of their lungs while Theo giggled, amused by the whole affair.

 

“Eyes on the road Aaron,” Burr whispered to himself, though honestly he wouldn't have minded getting into a car accident just about now

 

* * *

 

 

They made two stops. The first one was at the nearest Starbucks where Burr insisted he needed to go into the store rather than order from the Drive-Thru.

 

“This is a waste of time Aaron,” Hamilton told him.

 

“I need to use the washroom,” was the other man’s excuse.

 

“We can go in and order for you then while you go,” he offered.

 

“Stay in the car Hamilton,” it was an order, not an offer.

 

Hamilton shrugged and said, “get me a chai latte.”

 

Burr came back with a large coffee for himself, two hot chocolates for the kids and nothing for Hamilton.

 

“Guess I forgot,” he shrugged. Hamilton was furious but he wasn't going to fight Burr right now seeing as how the other man was already fuming so intensely Alexander though he might crash the damn car.

 

* * *

 

 

They also stopped at a pharmacy to get allergy medication for Hamilton. This time Burr was going to wait in the car.

 

“I still think you ought to pay for it, since you were the one who invited me without warning me about the cat,” Alexander muttered.

 

“Send me in that store, Hamilton, and your allergy meds may turn out to be laxatives,” was the response he got.

 

Hamilton didn't argue that but he also decided to take his sweet time in the Pharmacy, casually walking down each aisle and scanning every item on every shelf.

 

He decided to buy painkillers as well as a ear plugs; not that he planned to use them (having his ears blocked while he slept gave him nightmares) but because he felt they would make a statement.

 

He also lingered in the condom section, debating whether or not he should purchase some. Not that he knew why he would need them; the events from last night were more of a subconscious thought at the moment. The hand that reached for the box and put it in his basket didn't really feel like his own and he left the aisle without really dwelling on what he'd just done.

 

He also bought four random alcohol shots of varying intensities from the grocery store section figuring those would come in handy.

 

His phone buzzed in his pocket:

 

**Aaron:**

I know what you’re doing, don't think I won't just drive away without you Alex.

 

**Aaron:**

I mean it you have five minutes.

 

Hamilton decided he'd let him suffer enough. He grabbed two candy bars for the kids on the way out and hid the more suspect items in his backpack. He ignored the look the cashier was giving him as he scanned each item; his train wreck of a life was none of that kid’s business.

 

* * *

 

 

The Chuck-E-Cheese loomed over the strip mall parking lot like suburban concrete fortress.

 

Burr found himself walking next to Hamilton while the kids ran ahead excitedly trying to get through the door as soon as they could.

 

Aaron was well aware that they looked like a family. To hide that image he tried to imagine what a straight man would do in this situation but the only thing that came to mind was to either spit on the ground or aggressively chase after his kid and neither of those options sounded desirable to to him. He was really regretting wearing skinny jeans and a collared blouse instead of his sweats and a marvel t-shirt.

 

As they walked through the automatic doors, Burr’s senses were suddenly assaulted by the pungent smell of cheap plastic and fast food, accompanied by the roar of screaming children.

 

“How much are tokens” Hamilton asked the teen at the cash.

 

“We don't keep tokens anymore sir, you fill up a card now.” He handed Hamilton and Burr two credit cards with a cartoon mouse on them.

 

“Fine put fifty dollars on my son’s,” Hamilton said beaming at Philip. Good grief, the man was a pushover.

 

Although Burr didn't feel pressured to buy his child’s affections, he also didn't want to be unfair to Theo. Sighing he said, “fine put fifty on her’s as well,” and there went his lunch money for the week.

 

Theo high fived Philip; apparently that was her new favourite greeting custom.

 

“Alright kids, have fun!” Hamilton ordered them.

 

“We’ll just be at one of the tables if you need us,” Burr added. Again this all felt too familial. At the rate he was going he may as well start calling himself “Hamilton's wife”.

 

When they sat down Hamilton immediately opened his backpack and pulled out his laptop and one of their case files.

 

“Alex I'm not sure this in an appropriate place to have our clients files on full display,” Burr told him, Hamilton's sporadic work ethic never ceasing to amaze him.

 

“Well Aaron, I figured I'd have nothing better to do since conversations with you seem to involve either useless banter, or you lying to my face to avoid confrontation,” Hamilton told him coolly, still keeping his eyes glued to the screen.

 

That actually kinda stung, “you mean this morning?” Burr asked.

 

“I suppose, though I have no way of knowing how often you lie to me,” he still wasn't meeting Burr’s gaze.

 

“I thought I could spare you the embarrassment,” Aaron tried to explain, “I was trying to help you out Alex!”

 

Hamilton snorted derisively, “why should you give two shits about my pride Aaron?”

 

Burr didn't want to answer that.

 

Hamilton looked up from the screen and watched Burr for a few minutes before rolling his eyes, “see this is why I brought stuff for us to do.” He reached into his bag and pulled out Aaron's laptop as well.

 

“When did you take my computer?” Burr asked annoyed.

 

“I don't remember, Burr, I must've been sleepwalking,” Hamilton replied bitterly.

 

Aaron was not in the mood for doing work. The shouts of kids rang out painfully in his ears and he didn't feel comfortable thinking outside his office. He looked around and caught sight of Theo and Philip playing in the arcade section. He couldn't tell what Philip was playing but Theo was watching him intently and neither of them seemed to notice their bored father.

 

He reached out and pushed Hamilton's laptop screen shut.

 

“Stop that,” Hamilton muttered, trying to slap Burr’s hand away.

 

“You're not even working Hamilton!” Aaron protested. He knew Alexander was could not possibly be more focused that he was; the man was tired, moody, and he hadn't taken his adhd medication this morning (Aaron was annoyed with himself for noticing that).

 

“I'm ignoring you,” he snapped trying to reopen the laptop. Burr kept his hand on the screen.

 

“Look Alex I'm sorry,” he pleaded, and he meant it, “I thought I could spare you the embarrassment I'm sorry I lied, okay?”

 

“Are you going to explain to me why you even gave a shit?” Hamilton repeated, giving up on the laptop screen and crossing his arms sternly.

 

“I promise we’ll talk,” Burr told him, “but this is really not the place,” he added gesturing to the Chuck-E-Cheese. Already several middle aged suburban mothers were shooting them dirty looks, wether that was a result of the swearing or the fact that they looked like a couple Aaron couldn't say. It was probably a mix.

 

Hamilton seemed satisfied by that. He put away his work and got up.

 

“Where are you going?” Burr asked since Hamilton didn't seem mad.

 

“I'm getting a drink. You want anything?” the other man gestured to the takeout counter.

 

Burr snorted, “I can't imagine you'd actually get me anything after the Starbucks incident.”

 

“You're mistaken, Aaron. I was going to pour every single soda from the fountain into one cup. Enjoy your sugar sludge asshole,” Alexander told him sarcastically.

 

Burr genuinely laughed at that and Hamilton looked amused as well as he bounced off towards the soda. He got them both cokes.

 

* * *

 

 

Philip crouched down in preparation to throw another basketball into the small hoop above them. He always took way longer than Theo did, sticking his tongue out and dramatically trying to find the perfect throwing angle. Of course he missed every time, but he never seemed bother by it and Theo liked watching him.

 

She could never tell if the absurd expressions Philip always made were genuine or a joke. Either way she thought he would do well in the theatre.

 

She watched him wind up and promptly miss another shot. He giggled when he missed. Truly nothing upset this kid.

 

While he prepared to throw another she snuck a glance at their fathers. The two men were sitting across from each other chatting happily while drinking their sodas. Theo couldn't hear what they were saying but it must've been a good talk because they weren’t at each other’s throats yet.

 

“Hey Philip look over there,” she said when he had thrown his last ball. The machine spat out a participation ticket which Philip pocketed before turning to follow Theo's gaze.

 

“Huh they aren't fighting,” he said, “that's new.”

 

“I don't think they really like fighting,” Theo theorized.

 

Philip snorted, “well they sure fight a lot when we're around.”

 

“I think it's just a show,” she said.

 

Philip looked unsure, “they usually seem pretty angry… but I guess, it's not the serious sort of fighting like mommy and daddy used to.”

 

“You know they're not married right?” she asked him. She didn't think Philip was dumb, he spoke far less immaturely around her than around adults, but he was also a little inattentive so she had no idea how seriously he believed Aaron was his step mom.

 

“I know that,” Philip told her with a laugh, “but dad makes a funny face when I say that they are so I'm not going to stop. Plus they act like they're married.”

 

“Why do you say that?” Theo asked.

 

“Well, they fight a lot but they never seem sad afterwards and they stay together. Isn't that love?” Philip said.

 

Theo watched her father's eyes lighting up while Hamilton chatted enthusiastically to him, “I think you're right.”

 

“If they got married you'd be my sister,” Philip pointed out excitedly, “wouldn't that be cool?”

 

“Yeah but they aren't going to get married,” Theo said pessimistically.

 

“Why not, you said I was right. You said they were in love!” Philip protested.

 

“Yeah but they're dumb Philip,” she told him plainly, “they're just gonna keep ignoring that they love each other because they're really stupid.”

 

“Don't call my dad stupid,” Philip pouted.

 

“Sorry,” Theo said, “I don't mean that he's stupid-stupid, but they don't really notice things like love and stuff.”

 

“Then we should make them notice!” Philip said, “we’ll make them fall in love and get married and then you'll be my sister and dad will be happy and I will be happy and everyone will be happy!” he looked thrilled by that far-fetched idea.

 

Theo thought about that, “it'll be hard…” she told him.

 

“No it won't, it'll be fun!” Philip continued excitedly, before adding in a more serious tone, “plus if we don't get them together I'm probably never going to see you again! My dad says mommy is going to be upset if she knows I stayed with you!”

 

Theo knew she could probably convince her father to set up more play dates with Philip no matter what happened, but she understood his worry.

 

“Fine,” she agreed, “I've got an idea.”

 

* * *

 

 

Hamilton liked to talk and, when he wasn't being an ass, Burr liked to listen to him. It was all very convenient. Hamilton liked to tell stories, usually about stuff that happened to him or to friends of his. They were usually exaggerated and Burr, ever the skeptic, didn't really believe most of them but Hamilton had this animated way of speaking that could make even the most boring or ridiculous stories entertaining.

 

Most of them were from their college days, which felt odd to Aaron because he remembered feeling like he knew Hamilton so well at that time, albeit as a rival. Apparently, while being someone’s nemesis gave you a unique relationship status, you didn't actually get to know them that well.

 

It was strange to hear about things from his past from a completely different perspective; learning about Hamilton's college shenanigans from the man himself, rather than through their college newspaper.

 

Not many of his stories took place on St Croix; in fact, while Burr had heard many of the college stories before, their current conversation in the Chuck-E-Cheese was the first time Burr had ever heard Hamilton talk about his life before immigrating to America. Those stories always sounded so far away Aaron, the thought of young Hamilton, dirt poor and running around in the squeltering tropical heat with no interest in politics or laws and no aspirations for a higher education. He didn't say that out loud, of course, but Burr could hear in Alexander’s voice that the bastard boy on St Croix had never expected to get where he had gotten.

 

Aaron managed to get so invested in Hamilton's chatter that he actually jumped a little when Philip and Theo showed returned to the table.

 

“Hey you kids having fun?” Hamilton asked, his face slightly flushed from the energy that had gone into his narrations.

 

“I can't win anything,” Philip pouted holding out the seven tickets he and Theo had managed to accumulate.

 

“Well the games are supposed to be hard,” Hamilton explained to him.

 

“The other kids have lots of tickets,” Philip whined.

 

“That's because their parents are helping them,” Aaron scoffed, glaring at another dad stuck playing the basketball game with a pile of tickets at his feet for his excited son.

 

“It's not fair to us kids,” Philip protested, “you have to help us I wanna win the Dino!” He gestured to a large stuffed dinosaur on the prize shelf.

 

“Don't worry Philip I'll help you out,” Hamilton promised.

 

“You can't be serious?” Burr snapped, “the whole point of this place is the kids win the tickets! They're not gonna learn anything if you just win them all for them!” Aaron could not believe that this was a custom.

 

“Clearly you've never been to one of these places before,” Hamilton said with a laugh, “all the parents get stuck on these stupid games.”

 

“Does that mean only Philip’s going to get more tickets than me?” Theo asked with wide eyes. Burr could balked at the manipulative monster the Hamiltons had turned his daughter into.

 

“Don't worry Theo I'll win both of you enough tickets for you both to have dinosaurs!” Hamilton promised them putting his arms around the two kids.

 

“No way,” Burr said, he wasn't going to let this go any further, “I can get my own daughter tickets thank you very much!”

 

“I dunno you don't seem like the sort to be very good at games, y’know since you're such a stick in the mud…” Hamilton challenged.

 

“Well it’s not like you have the concentration or the maturity to play games properly!” Burr shot back, “you couldn't game your way out of a paper bag and, worse still, you're a sore loser!”

 

“Maybe you two could work together on it,” Theo suggested.

 

“No way Theo!” Hamilton snapped still glaring at Burr, “I’m sorry but your father has challenged me and now I'm gonna have to wipe the greasy floor of this establishment with his ass! I'll win so many tickets you both will get every plush dinosaur on that prize shelf!”

 

“Yay!” Philip cheered and Theo punched him in the shoulder and muttered something about this not being part of the plan.

 

Burr was fuming now, “it's on Alexander!” He snapped storming off towards the games, “you won’t know what hit you! I will have more tickets than you’ve ever seen”

 

“Oh don't worry Burr. When we're done here you'll be crying your sorry eyes out in the ballpit wondering how you got so low!” Hamilton shouted right behind him.

 

Every patron in the Chuck-E-Cheese was watching them in shock.

 

* * *

 

 

Hamilton decided to pick one game and stick with it. Unlike Burr, he had the advantage of having gone to a Chuck-E-Cheese before; he knew the drill and he knew that he was really good at whack-a-mole. Any game that encouraged quick thinking and impulsivity was perfect in his books. Plus he was on an adrenaline rush at the moment and was more than happy to take his pent-up rage out on a bunch of innocent plastic moles.

 

Burr joined him at first but gave up quite quickly at that particular game. Hamilton spent several minutes watching him play and just laughing at him hesitate and miss every hit. It was tragic; the man was never prepared to whack any moles until he had thought about it for several seconds and by then it was too late.

 

Burr managed to stay disturbingly calm during Hamilton's taunts. Alexander wasn't sure what to make of that; it didn't seem like Burr was genuinely serene but more like he was either truly furious or completely confident in his own ability to win. It was rather unsettling but he knew that was Burr's way of fighting: unreadable reactions that made you doubt yourself completely. The irony of it all was that the man probably had no idea what he was doing.

 

Out of the corner of his eye could see Burr going from game to game trying everything he passed. At his location Hamilton couldn't see what he was up to. He tried his best to ignore Burr and focus on the game at hand but he just couldn't concentrate when the other man was out of his field of vision. Who knows what that schemer could be getting up to? He could be cheating... He was the sort to cheat…

 

Since Hamilton had racked up a decent amount of tickets he decided to go check on Aaron. He found him over by the skeeball machine. Hamilton observed Burr wind up each shot painfully slowly, carefully lining up each roll with his eyes squinted in focus like he did when he was proofreading Hamilton's cases. On the rare occasion he actually threw the ball, his shots were near perfect. He got two bullseye and one that went pretty close in the time Hamilton spent watching him. The machine spat out piles of tickets, much to his annoyance.

 

Hamilton had to act.

 

“Lemme try!” He told Burr going over to the machine next to him.

 

“Be my guest,” Burr replied still focusing on his own game.

 

Hamilton stuck his card in and the machine dispensed several balls that weighed more than he thought they would. He suddenly realized nervously that he couldn't throw for shit. He took a deep breath and rolled the ball anyway. He missed horrifically. The same for the next two throws. On the fourth one he got it in the small hole; a disappointing victory.

 

He noticed Burr chuckling next to him, still pretending he wasn't paying attention.

 

“Shut up asshole!” He snapped at him.

 

“You would do better if you actually aimed,” Burr told him.

 

“Yeah well you suck shit at whack-a-mole!” Hamilton retorted.

 

“Alexander feel free to go back to your game, you're voice is grating and it's throwing me off,” Aaron told him while still pretending to be focused on his game.

 

“Oh I'm throwing you off, am I?” Hamilton fumed. He grabbed his final skee ball and tossed it at Burr’s arm. He missed but the ball clattering into the wall behind Aaron and made the other man jump.

 

“Jesus fucking Christ Hamilton!” Burr yelled, “those can actually hurt!”

 

Somewhere behind them a middle aged mother hushed them.

 

“You wanna a real challenge?” Hamilton asked.

 

“What do you have in mind,” Burr muttered lining up his last skeeball.

 

“Air hockey,” Hamilton replied.

 

“Bring it on,” Burr changed his mind about his last shot and lobbed his final skeeball at the side of Hamilton's torso. He was right they did hurt and Hamilton buckled over muttering a series of expletives.

 

More parents were now giving the two obnoxious men dirty looks.

 

* * *

 

 

At the top of the play-structure, one of the corner tubes bulged out to form a bubble that had a small faded plastic window overlooking the arcade. It was from this bubble that Theo and Philip watched their plans fall apart below them.

 

“I really thought they'd work together,” Philip muttered as Hamilton trick-shotted the air hockey puck up into Burr’s face.

 

“I suppose in a way they kinda are,” Theo offered hopefully, though she knew in her heart that the air hockey game was a terrible way to earn tickets; it gave out only a couple for the winner and one for the loser and was overall a waste of energy.

 

“They look insane,” Philip observed. Both men were gripping the sides of the air hockey table so intensely that the might have broken it if they both weren't so lithe.

 

Theo nodded in agreement, “so what now?”

 

“I really don’t know…” said Philip sadly.

 

* * *

 

 

People were definitely starting to get mad.

 

“Hey assholes! My son has been waiting for this game for ten minutes!” one man shouted.

 

“This is supposed to be a family friendly environment!” another woman added.

 

Burr did not hear what they were saying, he could only focus on Hamilton. They weren't even checking to see who won each round; when the timer went off they would absentmindedly scan their cards again.

 

He didn't notice the mob surrounding until he finally scanned his card and nothing happened. He checked the machine to see if it was broken. It wasn't; he was out of tokens.

 

Hamilton was in the same boat as he was, both of them staring at their cards as if trying to remember what they were doing. _What were they doing?_

 

“Sirs I'm going to need to ask you to get out of the arcade area,” came a voice behind him, sounding like it wasn't the first time he'd said it. It was the poor teenager from the cash.

 

“Sorry,” Burr muttered still not entirely sure what was going on. There was a disappointingly small pile of tickets at the bottom of the machine. He grabbed them and returned to their table, followed by Hamilton.

 

They sat down in silence, still panting from the intensity of their fight. Burr tried to drink out of his soda, cringing when he realized it was just melted ice.

 

“So who won?” Hamilton asked.

 

“In my opinion we’re both losers,” Burr replied. He changed his mind, he wanted to drink the tepid soda water.

 

“I think I got more air hockey tickets,” Hamilton said holding up the meager pile.

 

“Jesus Hamilton, who cares!” Burr snapped, “we were supposed to be spending time with our kids! Do you even know where they are?”

 

That made Hamilton snap out of it. He looked around in wild panic. They weren't in the arcade, they weren't visible on the play structure, he couldn't see them near the stage. He jumped up, “holy shit Aaron we lost the kids!”

 

“Hamilton calm dow-”

 

“-No you calm down! Aaron she's going to kill me!” Hamilton had already begun pacing, as he did when he was freaking out.

 

“Hamilton it's going to be okay,” he repeated. It fell on deaf ears; Hamilton was muttering to himself as he trudged back and forth in front of the table.

 

Burr grabbed his arm, “Alex-” he got slapped away rather harshly.

 

“Let go of me asshole! This is all your damn fault!” He was losing it.

 

Bur grabbed his arm again, gripping it as firmly as he could. Hamilton squirmed and swore at him but he held on.

 

“Calm down.” He repeated. Hamilton stopped squirming and Burr stood up and grabbed both his shoulders, “look at me Alex,” he said tilting Hamilton's head to their eyes met, “it's going to be fine, okay.”

 

“How can you know that…” Hamilton trailed off, going slack in Aaron’s arms.

 

“They don't let kids leave without their parents,” he assured him, “now I'm going to check the stage and the washrooms, you check the play-structure and together we can find them, alright?”

 

Hamilton nodded and Burr let go of him. He wiped his eyes and took a moment to regulate his breathing, “I hate this place,” he stated.

 

“So do I,” Aaron agreed and they parted to search for their kids.

 

* * *

 

 

Burr checked around the stage but there wasn't much there other than a rather creepy looking man in a mouse costume entertaining a couple of the younger children seated in front of him.

 

He checked the boys room first, calling out for Philip and Theo but he got no response. He hesitated in front of the girls room. It brought back memories of the time when Theo was still in diapers and whenever they went out he would have to find a way to change her, which usually involved sheepishly asking permission to use the tables in the women's restroom. He hated having to do it, he hated the fact that there were no changing tables in the men’s room, and he especially hated the looks of pity bystanders gave him. Consequently, he had stopped going out much.

 

He turned to ask a woman going in, “could you check to see if two kids are hiding in there? They seem to have run off from us.”

 

“Hey aren't you one of the adults who was hogging the air hockey table,” she asked giving him a queer look.

 

“The place does advertise ‘fun for all ages’ madam,” he replied sheepishly.

 

She glared at him but checked the room anyway, “nope sorry, no kids.”

 

He knew she was judging him but Burr didn't care much; he wasn't one to bother defending his pride towards people he didn't care about.

 

The giant mouse finished up his show and descended the stage. Burr decided to follow him, seeing as the only other worker in the place seemed to be the poor teenage cashier who looked overworked as it is.

 

“Excuse me sir?” He called out.

 

The mouse removed his head and Burr let a surprised snort, “Lee, are you fucking kidding me.”

 

“Shh keep your voice down,” Charles Lee hissed, his face flushing in embarrassment when he realized who Burr was, “why the hell are you even here, Aaron?”

 

“I would say ‘because my life is a mess’ but at least I'm not in a mouse suit,” he chuckled.

 

“Look, it's hard to get work when president Washington fires you, okay,” the pitiful man responded.

 

“That was several years ago,” Burr informed him.

 

“Don't remind me,” Lee moaned looking dead inside.

 

“I need your help,” Burr began.

 

“Ha like I'm going to help you,” he snorted, “you're an asshole Aaron, I don't need to do shit for you.”

 

“Might I remind you who seconded you in that fight?” Burr told him.

 

“The fight that got me fired that you were only involved with because you wanted to break it up? Forgive me Aaron if I don't really feel indebted”

 

Burr didn't feel like reminding him that it was his poor work on the president's campaign that had gotten him fired, not the fight, “look Lee, you can either help me out or I can tell Hamilton that you're working here as Chuck E. I'm sure he'd be delighted to hear it…”

 

“You've got to be kidding me! Why the fuck is that prick here?” He snapped, though Burr could see that Lee was terrified.

 

“His life is also a mess, if it makes you feel any better,” Burr grinned, “then again he also is not in a mouse suit.”

 

“You're a major dick.” Lee said, “what do you want?”

 

“I lost two kids in here, I need to find them. I'm worried they might've snuck into some of the back rooms.”

 

Lee looked at him dumbly, “the rooms in the back are locked, no one gets in there.”

 

“Surely you must have some ideas of places they could hide,” Burr pleaded.

 

“No nothing comes to mind…” Lee began, “well maybe some of the party rooms. They're through those doors and we don't usually lock them but they're also super boring, not really the sort of place a couple of kids would want to go.”

 

“Show me,” Burr ordered.

 

He was led back through a short hallway. It had a door to the kitchen and two doors for the party rooms, neither of which were in use today.

 

He opened the first one and there was Philip and Theo, huddled in the dark room, their faces illuminated only by the glow of Hamilton's laptop. Aaron had no idea when they had managed to take that from him. Probably during the air hockey game…

 

“What are you two doing here?” Burr asked them, it seemed strange that they would huddle up in the dark of the party room.

 

“Hiding,” Philip whispered.

 

“Why is the mouse-man with you?” Theo asked.

 

“The mouse-man is done with his shift but somehow got roped into helping this dick here,” Lee told her sarcastically

 

Burr fished twenty bucks out of his pocket and handed it to him, “go buy some vodka or something,” he said, dismissively.

 

“I will be,” Lee said taking the money, then added, “if you tell anyone about this I will kill you.”

 

“Nobody has to know anything Charles, you know that...” Burr grinned at him threateningly, he liked having blackmail material on prominent politicians, no matter how low they had fallen.

 

Lee stormed off cursing.

 

“So do you two mind telling me why you're hiding?” Burr asked them after Lee had left.

 

“George Eacker,” Philip whispered.

 

“Who's that?”

 

“He's this mean kid on Philip’s street” Theo explained.

 

“He's tall and he hit me,” Philip squeaked covering his nose.

 

Burr felt himself grow unusually angry at the thought that someone would dare lay a hand on poor Philip . He knelt down beside Philip, “here let me see,”

 

The boy removed his hands. The bridge of his nose was a little red, it might bruise, but otherwise it didn't look broken and it wasn't bleeding. Of course that didn't change how furious Burr was.

 

“How old is this kid?” He asked.

 

“He's in high school,” Theo explained, “his dad doesn't like Mr Hamilton, so he doesn't like Philip.”

 

“He took our tickets,” Philip sniffled, “now we're hiding in here in case he comes back.”

 

“Alright it's gonna be fine,” Burr said. He pulled out his phone and shot Hamilton a text:

 

**To Alexander:**

I found them they're ok.

 

He sent it, then added:

 

**To Alexander:**

They got scared by some Eacker kid. He punched Philip in the nose but don't worry he's fine. Get our stuff together so we can leave I think they've had enough for one day.

 

His phone buzzed back at him before he could even close the screen.

 

**Alexander:**

WHAT DO YOU MEAN HE GOT PUNCHED BY THAT LITTLE EACKER SHIT!

 

Burr realized that he probably should not have told him that.

 

“Are you to ready to leave this room?” He asked, pulling a tissue out of his pocket and wiping some of the tears off Philips face.

 

The boy sniffed again but smiled at him and nodded. Burr straightened up and turned to Theo who also nodded her approval. He grabbed each of them by the hand and led them back into the main room of the Chuck-E-Cheese.

 

The second they were through the doors, Hamilton saw them and came running over.

 

“Oh my goodness Philip are you alright?” He asked sweeping his son up into a tight hug.

 

Philip pretended to choke from the grip, “yeah dad I'm fine you can put me down.”

 

“You had us worried sick!” Hamilton told him setting him back onto the floor.

 

Burr nodded, “if someone is being mean to you next time you tell us, you don't just hide”

 

“You looked busy,” Theo pointed out to him.

 

“That's true,” Burr told her, his cheeks flushing a little in embarrassment as he realized how shitty his parenting had been today, “next time we act silly like that, though, you should come stop us. It's not your fault, but you know how stupid your dad’s can get.” The way he said made him feel even more like he and Hamilton were married. Theo noticed it as well and she gave him a knowing half grin.

 

“You won't have to worry about that Eacker kid anymore Philip,” Hamilton continued to his son, “I convinced him to leave you alone”

 

Burr had a bad feeling about that, “Alex what did you do to him?”

 

Hamilton turned to look at Philip, then back up at Burr guiltily, “uh… it's possible I may have punched him…”

 

“Possible?” Aaron nearly shrieked, “Hamilton you can't punch a teenager!”

 

“That ass had it coming,” Hamilton retorted waving a finger at Burr, “what kind of twisted little shit punches a six year old?”

 

“Is this the sort of lesson you want to teach your son?” Burr snapped at him, he felt himself shaking; this was probably one of the worst things that idiot had ever done.

 

“Yes when someone messes with your family you fight for them!” Hamilton shot back.

 

“That sort of attitude gets people killed Hamilton! Are you still a child for christ’s sake?”

 

“I didn't really think you should punch Eacker,” Philip piped up from Burr’s side, “it sounds like the sort of thing he would do… not what a dad would do.”

 

Burr's gaze had to soften when he saw how Hamilton's expression fell. He interjected before anything else could be said, “Theo why don't you and Philip play in the structure for a while longer. Hamilton and I are going to apologize to Mr Eacker and set things straight.”

 

Theo nodded and led Philip off; Burr was so grateful that girl was so understanding. He turned to Hamilton who looked absolutely crushed.

 

“I'm not apologizing to Eacker,” he began.

 

“Fair enough Hamilton but I'm going to on our behalf,” Burr told him, “go take a break, I'll fix this and we’ll get out of this place and go for dinner, okay.” He patted Hamilton on the back.

 

“Is he really upset?” Hamilton asked gazing forlornly at Philip, “I thought he'd be happy…”

 

“You should be grateful he was upset,” Burr stated, “an eye for an eye isn't a good lesson to teach a boy. It's only ever gotten you into trouble.”

 

“I'm gonna go see if I can play with them before we go,” Hamilton sighed getting up.

 

Burr nodded and scanned the room looking for Eacker. He saw an angry looking mother and a lanky teenage boy sniffling pitifully of to the side; that must be them. The way they glared at him as he approached confirmed his suspicions.

 

“Are you that violent man’s… lover,” the lady asked, choking out the last word with a cringe. Burr could already foresee this going badly.

 

“I'm his friend ma’am, I was helping him out with his kid,” he clarified.

 

She looked unconvinced, “you know he punched my son right?”

 

“Yes I know I've come to apologize,” Burr told her, smiling as best he could.

 

“He should be the one apologizing!” Snapped Eacker. Boy that kid looked awful. He was way taller than poor Philip and looked like a pretty nasty piece of work. He was holding a blue slushy against his cheek where Hamilton had punched him. It was only a little red and Burr felt oddly put out that Alexander hadn't hit him harder.

 

“Yes, well, he's going through some tough stuff right now and he isn't really in an emotional position to make an apology,” Burr explained.

 

“Bullshit!” Eacker snapped ignoring his mother's glare, “if he doesn't apologize we will be pressing charges!”

 

“Look is there anyway we can make it up to you,” Burr asked pinching the bridge of his nose in the hopes of making his splitting headache go away.

 

Eacker thought for a moment, “well if you give me all your tickets I might consider forgetting the whole deal…”

 

Burr didn't even care anymore. He returned to his table, grabbed his and Hamilton's tickets, and forked them over to Eacker, who slurped his slushy smugly.

 

“Just one more thing,” Burr added before they could leave, “George, we don't want to hear about you terrorizing Philip anymore. He's ten years younger than you and you have no right to bully him like that.”

 

The mother looked appalled, “do you mean to apologize by accusing my son of hurting a six year old? That's low, even for a…” she looked at him derisively.

 

“Sodomite?” Burr offered.

 

“Faggot,” Eacker said grinning into his slushy straw.

 

Burr let out a low chuckle. His head was spinning worse than it ever had and he hated this kid so much.

 

“Y’know what?” He said still chuckling but looking up to meet Eacker’s eyes, “y’know what? Fuck you” He snatched the slushy out of Eacker's hand and dumped it on his head, “enjoy your tickets, though I don’t think you can trade them for personality.”

 

The boy and his mother looked absolutely shocked. Burr pulled three dollars out of his pocket and placed them in the mother’s hand, “for the slushy,” he told her and stormed off.

 

Fuck the consequences that felt amazing. From behind him he could hear Eacker's mother cry out, “we will be pressing charges! I'm going to talk to the manager!” Burr just kept walking ignoring the hysterical screams from behind him.

 

When he made it to the structure, he couldn't see the two kids. He could, however, see Hamilton sitting in the ballpit.

 

“Hamilton were leaving,” he called out to him.

 

Hamilton did not respond. He was buried in plastic coloured balls up to his chest and was staring forlornly at the pit.

 

“Alex come on we have to leave now,” Burr added with urgency.

 

“Nothing matters, Burr,” Hamilton mumbled, “join me in the pit of failure.” He reached into the ballpit and produced a small vodka shot that Burr assumed had been in his pocket and he drank the whole thing in one go.

 

“Jesus Hamilton get out of there,” Burr urged him, “come on this is super immature, not to mention probably against the rules of this establishment!”

 

Hamilton's response was to weakly throw a ball at Burr; the shot didn't even get the ball out of the pit.

 

Burr sighed and waded into the pit. It was slow moving and during his struggle Hamilton pulled out another shot and drank it. Burr had no idea what had happened to the other bottle.

 

He finally reached Hamilton, “come on Alex!” He said grabbing his arm, “stop this right now!”

 

“I'm never leaving this pit Aaron!” Hamilton snapped in a shrill voice. He grabbed Burr’s other arm and pulled, sending him tumbling face first into the pit.

 

Burr wrinkled his nose in disgust, trying not to think about about how many germs were in this ballpit. Next to him Hamilton drank another shot. Burr straightened himself up so that he was sitting next to Hamilton, “what's all this about anyway?” He asked, too tired to fight.

 

“Philip didn't want me to hang out with him in the structure. He wanted to be alone…” Hamilton sucked sadly on the empty shot bottle. Burr tried to pull it out of his hand but Hamilton slapped him away.

 

“God Hamilton,” Burr sighed leaned back against the side of the ballpit, “could you stop being an emotional mess for once in your damn life!”

 

“To failing as a father!” Hamilton toasted going for his fourth shot. This time Burr managed to grab it away from him, spilling it into the ballpit in the process.

 

“Sir you can't drink in there,” said a voice above them. It was the poor teen from the entrance.

 

“Believe me kid, I’m trying to get him out,” Burr told him with a laugh.

 

“This isn't funny sir,” the poor kid sounded exhausted, “I'm going to call the cops if you two don't leave this building.”

 

“We did nothing wrong!” Slurred Hamilton angrily.

 

“We have gotten reports of you disturbing the peace, acting aggressively, violating our swearing policy, assaulting another visitor, and now you are consuming alcohol in our ballpit! This is supposed to be a wholesome family environment!” Burr did feel quite guilty, realizing that they had probably ruined many different people’s Chuck-E-Cheese experience.

 

“Come on Alex we’re leaving,” he told him pulling his arm.

 

Hamilton threw another ball at him, “I'm not scared of the cops Burr…”

 

“I know you're not but I am!” Burr told him seriously, “Hamilton I'm not gonna die getting shot by a cop in the Chuck-E-Cheese ballpit now get up!”

 

This time Hamilton obeyed him, gripping tightly to Burr's arm like it was his only lifeline. When they got out and dusted themselves off, Burr called up, “Theo, Philip, it's time to go!”

 

The kids came running down and Burr suspected they had also had enough of this place. As the gathered their stuff together under the watchful glare of the poor teen who seemed to be the only staff member around, Burr began to feel even worse for the two kids. He turned to Hamilton and whispered, “go distract the staff.”

 

“Why?” Hamilton asked.

 

“Just trust me,” Burr told him putting his arm on the small of Hamilton's back.

 

Hamilton nodded and rushed over to the teen, prattling breathlessly about how sorry he was. It was practically a speech and Burr even heard him open with a quote about penitence.

 

Burr grabbed the kids, “let's go,” he told them ushering them quickly to the door. He handed Theo his car keys, “go open the door for us,” he ordered and she nodded, rushing out the door with Philip.

 

Aaron looked around to see if anyone was watching; only Hamilton seemed to see him from where he was distracting the cashier.

 

Burr jumped over the counter as fast as he could and grabbed the dinosaur plush off the prize shelf, ignoring the few other items that came tumbling along with it.

 

“Hey!” Shouted the teen, but it was too late. Hamilton shouted another apology to him as the two of them ran for the door, prize in tow.

 

Aaron jumped into his seat, catching his keys when Theo tossed them over and he had the car pulling out of the parking lot before the lone staff member was even out the door.

 

He let out an involuntary whoop of excitement as they drove away that made all of them laugh.

 

Hamilton handed the dinosaur back to the kids. His face was glowing from the alcohol and the adrenaline rush, his eyes were locked onto Burr's and his mouth was smiling so brightly that Aaron had to smile back. They were both breathless.

 

When excitement in the car died down Alexander said, “well I don't think we’ll be going back to that Chuck-E-Cheese.”

 

Burr laughed, “I wouldn't be surprised if they put us on a national watch list.”

 

“It's okay,” said Philip, “I think I've had enough of Chuck-E-Cheese.”

 

Hamilton looked at him bashfully but Philip smiled at him and added, “I had fun though, thanks dad!”

 

Burr reached down and squeezed Hamilton's hand on the seat next to him, trying to tell him, _see? it all turned out fine_.

 

Hamilton gave him a relieved grin and squeezed his hand back.

 

“Next week can we go to the museum?” asked Theo. Her comment was met with another round of laughter.

 

“I can't say I'm that eager I am to get kicked out of the museum as well,” Burr chuckled.

 

“Alright who want’s to go out for dinner?” Hamilton asked when the energy died down.

 

“How does Denny’s sound?” Burr asked.

 

“As long as you guys stop fighting,” Philip told them.

 

Burr looked at Hamilton, noticing that their hands were still locked.

 

“We promise,” the said in unison, more to themselves that to the kids.

 

Aaron pulled his hand away so he could drive properly. He knew they would have to talk later but for now he was content to just think about the road ahead.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did you read this fic and think to yourself: "man I wish they had fucked in the chuck-e-cheese ballpit?" I doubt that because I didn't think that either. Until I did. And I was bored. Victor Hugo wrote a long ass essay in les mis about idleness being the root of evil deeds; well I was too idle and now I've written ballpit porn: http://fuckboyaham.tumblr.com/post/134249730958/the-chuck-e-cheese-porno-that-literally-no-one This has spoilers in a way because it takes place after this story but the only thing it spoils is established relationship and tbh you all knew how this was going to end. Warning: it's messed up and I've gotta dump a bucket of holy water on myself.


	4. Saturday Evening

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok so I'm just gonna say sorry for this one. Chapter 4 isn't bad but its not that great considering the wait. The thing was I always knew chapter 4 wouldn't be great because chuck e cheese au is the best thing I've ever wrote and chapter 4 is just meant to connect that momentous occasion to chapter 5 (maybe 6) where I wrap this shit up. So yea I was discouraged on finishing this. Oh yea and thanks to teacher strikes my exams were pushed back and my last exam was on the 24th of December so guess who wrote their calculus final on Christmas eve? This bitch. Thanks Dawson. But I digress hopefully the next chapter won't take as long, sorry, enjoy.

It was an odd time of day to be drunk. So odd, in fact, that Hamilton couldn't even consider himself drunk at all. He was waltzing along a line between inebriated and sober; the world moved slow but his thoughts were clear. Alcohol could be like that he supposed; were he at a party it would give him energy and make everything seem somehow better whereas at night he could calm him down and drown out the sorrows and stresses of the day.

 

He had taken up drinking because it was fast acting on him and easy self-medication. When Eliza had left him and he'd taken up living in the office, he craved it more and more, to the point where he was drunk almost every night and even during the day few of his beverages were free of it. It ought to have built resistance but it didn't; he still got drunk fast.

 

He was used to the feeling though and he considered himself a pleasant drunk. He was certainly happy now, the sober part of his brain was excited to be having this drive with his son while the intoxicated part felt transfixed by the sky as it zipped past the car window. He felt like he was in heaven and not in Burr’s car on the way to the Denny’s.

 

Burr must've been aware of his condition because he kept looking over at Hamilton worriedly. The first time Hamilton thought he was flirting and winked at him with a grin, prompting Aaron to roll his eyes at him. When he caught him again, Hamilton gave him a shrug of confusion and when Burr looked away he burst into giggles. He knew what was happening but he couldn't make his body respond appropriately so he just kept grinning. He wished there was a better way to express how happy he was.

 

When they pulled into the Denny’s parking lot Hamilton almost fell getting out of the car.

 

“Jesus Aaron you’re not my mother,” he slurred when Burr caught him. The other man had an expression that was either annoyed or concerned; whatever it was Hamilton felt compelled to giggle again.

 

Burr let go of him rather harshly and turned to Philip, “Phil you can't bring that dinosaur into the Denny’s it's too big.”

 

“Aw come on Burr that's not the spirit!” Hamilton stepped in to defend his son, “after all we went through to get it I think this Dinosaur deserves a celebratory Grand Slam!” He gave Philip a high five and Burr just gave him a look.

 

Hamilton remained blissfully unaware of the looks they were getting as the walked into the Denny’s. He did not realize how strange they must've looked, two disheveled looking men, one drunk, along with two kids and a gigantic dinosaur plush coming for dinner at 4:30 in the afternoon.

 

Hamilton looked up at the clock and jumped a little when he saw the time. He poked Aaron on the shoulder, “Burr! Burr!”

 

“What?” Aaron hissed, he had been trying to talk to the waitress about getting a table and Hamilton had interrupted him.

 

“Burr we forgot to get the kids lunch!” Hamilton said in what he thought was a whisper.

 

“I know Alex that's why we're at the Denny’s!” Burr told him.

 

Alexander shook his head, “it's too late Burr we forgot. We fucked up, we’re bad parents.”

 

“We’re doing fine Hamilton they're going to eat now,” Burr assured him trying to sound collected.

 

“But…” Hamilton wasn't really sure what was bothering him. Aaron put a hand on his shoulder and gave him a look, as if trying to remind him of something. Oh right! He wasn't drunk. Hamilton nodded to himself trying to focus on his feet as the lady waitress led them to their table.

 

Before she could bring the menus Hamilton grabbed her arm, “Miss there's nowhere for the dinosaur to sit,” he told her gesturing to the plushie that Philip was struggling to hold.

 

Burr glared at him and looked apologetically towards the waitress as she brought over an extra chair for the dinosaur.

 

When she left Hamilton opened his menu. It was pointless because he already knew he wanted pancakes. He closed the menu again and looked around for something to focus on. Burr watched him for a moment before calling out to another server, “excuse me Miss but could we get some water over here.”

 

“I don't want water,” Hamilton told him.

 

“Too bad,” Burr hissed, “you were the one who decided to drink this early in the day.”

 

“I'm fine Aaron!” Hamilton assured him.

 

“Alexander?” He heard a shocked voice say from behind him. Alex turned around to see a young server approaching their table.

 

“Peggy!” Hamilton jumped out of his seat when he saw her. She was the server Aaron had called out to and she was giving them both a queer look as she brought them their water.

 

“Aren't you visiting with Angelica this weekend too?” Hamilton asked, still standing up and trying to figure out whether or not he should hug his former sister in law. Peggy looked uncomfortable so he decided to sit down.

 

“Couldn't this weekend,” she explained, “I've got my finals coming up on top of this job,” she gestured to the Denny’s, then added, “I figured she would've taken Philip.”

 

“She says he gets bored there and thought we should spend a little more time together,” Hamilton explained.

 

“Aunty Angelica doesn't have any toys,” Philip added.

 

“Ah that explains it,” Peggy said giving her nephew a grin. She poured each of them a glass of water and watched Hamilton strangely as he stared into his glass. The water swirled around in it and made him feel really sleepy.

 

“Drink it Hamilton!” Burr ordered him from across the table.

 

Hamilton bristled at his tone, “don't order me around in front of my sister!” He snapped back at Burr. His tone caused Peggy to jump and the kids to look back and forth between them uncertainly. 

 

Alexander felt bad, “sorry ,” he muttered, “yeah fine I'll drink.”

 

“Do you mind if we keep the pitcher?” Burr asked Peggy. 

 

She handed it to them with an eyebrow raised, “I'm not going to be your server for the evening I’ll call someone else over,” it sounded like her own choice.

 

“Thanks,” Aaron replied apologetically. Hamilton watched his glass trying to make sense of everything.

 

* * *

 

When Peggy got to the staff door she gave Aaron a gesture as if to call him over. He excused himself to go to the washroom and followed her through the double doors.

 

She was waiting for him with her arms crossed and a stern look on her face, “have we met?”

 

Burr extended his hand, “Aaron Burr,” he told, then added, “I'm Alexander’s law partner I was at his wedding.”

 

“I don't remember you,” she eyed him doubtfully.

 

“I didn't stay for long,” he explained putting his hand down when she left him hanging.

 

She nodded thoughtfully, “what does Eliza think about you two?” She asked.

 

Burr didn't like where this was going,”contrary to popular belief we are just friends,” he assured her. When she gave him a look of disbelief he had to add, “well it's complicated.”

 

“How complicated?” She pressed him.

 

He wanted to say “really fucking complicated” but he knew that wasn't what she meant, “we've never kissed if that's what you mean,” he said leaning back onto the wall.

 

“Ah but you want to?” She said grinning.

 

“Again, it's complicated,” Aaron replied trying to force himself to look in control, “he's a bit of a mess right now…”

 

“So I've noticed,” she said glancing nervously at the door, “is he drunk?” 

 

“A little…”

 

“Jesus Christ does Eliza know how much of a mess he is?” Peggy was definitely a little freaked out and it was making Burr nervous about what she might say to hurt Hamilton's reputation in the eyes of his ex wife.

 

“You can't tell Eliza,” he told her plainly.

 

“Like hell I can't tell my sister about how her ex-husband is treating her kids!” Peggy snapped. Aaron always thought she was the calmer of the sisters; apparently he was wrong.

 

“Look Peggy…” he began, feeling oddly nervous under her glare, “I know Hamilton is a mess right now but believe me he treats Philip better than any kid ought to be treated, and he is responsible when he puts his mind to it… but God he's never seen the kid! He doesn't know how to watch one he's never had to be the parent before!”

 

“That doesn't make me less worried or less willing to tell my sister,” Peggy replied cooly.

 

Burr looked her right in the eyes, “losing Philip anymore than he has would kill him, Peggy.”

 

“Losing Philip would kill Eliza as well she ought to know her kids are safe!”

 

Peggy had a point but Burr wasn't going to give up on Hamilton so easily, “Philip is perfectly safe, they're staying with Theo and I. I'm keeping an eye on them both.”

 

She still looked unconvinced. It was very Schuyler of her, those sisters were fiercely protective of eachother, “then how did he get drunk?” She pointed out.

 

“He's only tipsy and, honestly, I have no fucking clue where he got the booze from, but it was a temporary lapse in judgement. He's gotten better, we talked.” They didn't really talk but Burr planned to.

 

“you've got him under control then?” She asked, “because Eliza thought she had him under control…”

 

Burr grinned, “I'm not as gentle as Eliza, trust me he’ll shape up.”

 

“I'm not going to lie to my sister,” Peggy pointed out to him.

 

Aaron nodded; that was fair, “could you just… not mention it to her just yet? I'm gonna make Hamilton talk to her and explain everything when she comes to pick Phil up, but until then…” he glanced again towards the door, he couldn't see Alexander from where he was, “I just want him to have this one.”

 

Peggy nodded, “fine but if you need help with him you call me, okay,” she ordered, writing down her cell number on old receipt paper and handing it to Burr, “I don't want you trying to solve the issues my former brother in law has on your own.”

 

Burr sighed and took the number reluctantly. This was all getting to be way more complicated than it had to be.

 

* * *

 

Hamilton was glad Philip talked a lot; it saved him from having to open his own mouth and risk his son noticing his tipsiness.

 

After three glasses of water, though, his mind was clearing up. People were quick to accuse Alexander of being unable to hold his liquor, however, as true as that was, he also was quick to sober up; tireless energy does that do a guy.

 

Philip’s comments were nonsensical but they were the most beautiful white noise. He was telling both his father and Theo about some television show he watched. It didn't make much sense but he was clearly passionate about it and Hamilton couldn't help himself from getting excited about… whatever it was.

 

When Burr had gotten back from his abnormally long washroom trip, he was still ignoring Alexander. Well, pretending to ignore him at least. He was actually watching Hamilton with a frightening intensity while quickly and turning his gaze away whenever Alex returned the stare. Hamilton just giggled at him, the alcohol making everything seem far funnier than it was.

 

Philip insisted on ordering pancakes, even though they had already eaten some for breakfast. Burr tried to insist that he get an actual dinner meal but Hamilton backed him up, claiming that he also wanted pancakes.

 

Truthfully he didn't really want to eat anything at all but ordering pancakes made Burr glare at him harder and he always craved attention.

 

He had anticipated Aaron mocking him once his food finally arrived, however when he saw what the other man was eating he ended up being the one to burst into laughter. The waitress placed all their meals down and the second her back was turned Burr and Theo switched plates.

 

“You can't be serious?” Hamilton asked, choking with laughter he looked at the kid’s meal macaroni and cheese, “do you have no pride Aaron?”

 

“It's good,” Burr mumbled avoiding eye contact.

 

“It's just fucking Kraft Mac and cheese!” Hamilton spluttered, “it's like a dollar at the store what the hell is wrong with you? Is this from when you worked with Jefferson?”

 

“Jefferson’s Macaroni and Cheese sucked,” Aaron replied, “and the Kraft stuff is a completely different thing and I happen to like it.”

 

“So what you order the kids meal and make your daughter eat adult food?”

 

“I like the nice food,” Theodosia mumbled over her plate, blushing a little, “besides dads not allowed to buy it anymore at home because he gets too much and it's all he’ll eat the doctor told him to stop.”

 

Hamilton just laughed even harder, only stopping when Aaron threw an ice cube from his drink at him. 

 

Alexander was kept giggling quietly while he ate, still too tipsy to really stop himself. He could easily imagine Aaron living alone and forgetting to feed himself anything other than Kraft macaroni. He smiled at the thought and was surprised that it wasn't even a smile of derision; he actually found it… quaint? That wasn't the right word. All he could explain to himself was that he liked knowing this fact about Aaron and he liked Aaron more because of this fact. He could not, however, conclude from this that he  _ liked _ Aaron. Not yet. He wished he were either sober enough to think clearly or drunk enough to not think at all. 

 

* * *

 

Aaron was glad they had eaten fast and that Philip, much like his own daughter, was not the sort of kid to ask for dessert. He needed to get out of public and back into his own houses a fast as the speed limit would permit them.

 

They had said goodbye to Peggy who had fortunately brought them their bill quickly upon seeing the desperation in Aaron's eyes. 

 

Hamilton sat next to him in the car and was watching him, though his head tilted lazily to the side and he looked half dead. Aaron didn't even have to insist that he nap when the got back. 

 

Apparently the kids were exhausted too and both of them bundled up with the dinosaur plush in front of cartoons. Aaron decided to step outside.

 

The temperature dropped as evening came and Burr had already smoked more cigarettes today than he'd care to admit. He wasn't someone who became easily addicted and he did not consider his smoking a problem yet, as he only smoked a pack a month during his mental lows. Since his mood had been fine, the half finished crumpled pack in his pocket was still half full. However, on this night alone he had smoked more than in the past year. 

 

Hamilton was causing this, he knew. Not purposely but Burr blamed him nonetheless. If this was what that man was doing to him now then maybe it was best that he not act upon certain feelings he knew he had.

 

Burr took a long drag and mulled over these feelings.

 

Did he like Hamilton? A stupid question, no one would put up with being law partners with that man unless they liked something about him. More than friends? Again obvious; they had been enemies once and in that relationship he had learned to respect Hamilton and regard him as more his equal than any other person he'd ever met. Romantically though, it was harder to tell. 

 

The truth was Burr still remembered his wife whom he had loved with all his heart and he still had the daughter he loved more than anything else on the face of the earth. While dating Hamilton might be… nice… Alexander was not serious about relationships. And how could Burr ever be able to shake the thought that the man wasn't cheating on him? Eliza hadn't known, surely she must've thought he never would and yet…

 

Burr didn't want to think, truthfully. He decided to put aside decisions for now. Wait for a moment maybe? Wait for Hamilton to make a move? Wait for Theodosia to grow up? Burr didn't care how long really; it was inevitable that something would happen between him and Hamilton but until it did, he would wait.

 

He must've been outside for longer that he felt he had. When Aaron checked his watch and noticed that it was 9:00 he inhaled wrong and got up quickly in a fit of wheezing.

 

“That's what smoking does to you Aaron,” Hamilton said smugly from the doorway.

 

“The kids?” Burr coughed, he couldn't bear to let them be up past their bedtimes again.

 

“Already asleep,” Hamilton assured him, “don't worry it was Theo who suggested you'd want a break.”

 

That made Burr feel worse, “you should've called me.”

 

“I agreed with her,” Hamilton responded, seeming unusually cheerful after his nap, “now Burr,” he extended his arm, “you want to come drink with me?”

 

“Haven't you had enough today,” Burr chucked, though he linked his arm with Hamilton's anyway.

 

“That where you're wrong,” the other man replied amiably, “I had a poor amount; too little for sober, too little for drunk–”

 

“–you were noticeably drunk,” Aaron reminded him.

 

“Not anymore!” Hamilton waved his arm dismissively, “now I'm a weird sort of tipsy that seems to be persisting. As I cannot be sober I shall just have to get drunker!”

 

“At least cigarettes don't alter my mind,” Burr muttered, consenting to be dragged into his own kitchen.

 

“They don't do much for your personality either,” Hamilton retorted, gently shoving Burr into a kitchen chair.

 

“They keep me from punching you.”

 

“You wouldn't punch me,” the other man had that stupid grin he got when he was too happy to keep control over his facial expressions, “you like me too much.”

 

“I've punched you before,” Aaron was only just now realizing that he was also grinning stupidly. He forced his face to stay neutral, although he suspected he was still grinning somehow.

 

“Water under the bridge,” Hamilton replied with another dismissive wave. He poured them two glasses of what looked like whiskey, “what was that about anyway?” He asked, referring to the punch.

 

“Don't tell me you forget those days?” Burr said, “you probably hit me too, remember the fist fight?”

 

“Only vaguely,” Hamilton replied, “I was absolutely smashed that night, I've forgotten.”

 

“I had accused you of spreading libels and you refused to take responsibility for them–”

 

“–I remember that part,” Hamilton protested sliding Burr a glass and sitting down, “we agreed to fight it out behind the school, then I ended up in the hospital I remember all that. What about the fight?”

 

“Well it was supposed to be just us,” Burr recounted, “but I didn't trust you so I brought Troup and Ness with me. Turns out you felt likewise as you brought your trio of friends as well; all of you wasted.”

 

“We're you sober?” Hamilton asked.

 

“Two beers.”

 

“Then how did I get stabbed?” Hamilton asked, “Laurens said it was your fault.”

 

“Not entirely true,” Burr replied, “Troup brought a friend along, didn't know the guy but he was weird. He showed up for the fight high on God-knows-what and pulled out a knife. I called off the fight when he stabbed you in the side. The guy was tripping hard, got arrested a month later.”

 

“Wow…” Hamilton replied taking a swig.

 

“That's why you don't invite other people to your fight,” Burr laughed.

 

“‘No I mean,” Hamilton was looking out the window, “I always thought you'd done it, the stabbing I mean.”

 

Burr might've gotten more upset by that if he wasn't so tired, “why would I bring a knife to a fistfight Hamilton? I'm not that much of a slimeball!”

 

“Given the nature of our relationship it wasn't that hard to believe,” Alexander protested, “you don't really know your enemies as well as you think you do.”

 

Aaron laughed, “drink more Hamilton, I don't need you getting philosophical on me; not now anyway.”

 

“Hey let me have my moment!” Hamilton laughed along with him, though he drank anyway. Burr brought his own glass to his mouth in a desperate effort to conceal his smile.

 

Hamilton's face flushed easily nearly every time he was over emotional but Burr had never seen him driven to blush from happiness; it was usually caused by anger. He looked radiant like this. Aaron poured himself more liquor. 

 

“You'll have to call Eliza tomorrow,” he told him after a few minutes of silence, “you have to tell her what's going on.”

 

Hamilton frowned at that and opened his mouth as if to protest but instead he took another swig from his glass.

 

Burr continued, “women always find out the truth, the sooner you tell her the better.”

 

“I don't want to tell my ex wife I'm homeless and taking care of her kid!” Hamilton said in exasperation.

 

“It's not just her kid,” Aaron reminded him, “besides you found a place to stay!”

 

“What about next time?” Hamilton asked, “she'll never let me see him again till I have somewhere to live and that's not going to happen anytime soon.”

 

“You can live here,” Burr offered before he could stop himself.

 

“Next time?” 

 

“No until you can afford an apartment,” the words kept tumbling out of his mouth, “help me clear out the basement and I'll make it liveable for you. The house is paid off so you don't need to bother with rent. Just pitch in for meals from time to time.”

 

“Are you kidding,” Hamilton asked, mouth dropped open in shock.

 

“No I'm not,” Burr assured him, “tell Eliza we’re roommates, you don't need to tell her when we became roommates. Tell her I have space for Philip.”

 

“Why Burr?” Hamilton asked in a low voice, “why help me?”

 

“Anything to get you out of the office,” Aaron waved his arm dismissively, “it's unprofessional we can't have clients knowing one of us lives in their workspace.”

 

Hamilton chuckled, “you'd think it would make us look like better lawyers; we practically live at work.”

 

“Unfortunately people don't like to receive legal advice in a room with a couch bed and an electric stove Alexander,” Burr replied.

 

He yawned and suddenly realized how exhausted he still was, “I'm going to bed Alex,” he said getting up, “thanks for the drink.”

 

Hamilton shrugged, “it's your alcohol Burr.”

 

“I meant the thought behind it,” Aaron tried to explain, “I appreciate the gesture.”

 

Hamilton just smiled at him, “I'll stay here and finish my glass.”

 

Burr raised an eyebrow, “no more than the glass okay. This bottle better still be here tomorrow.”

 

“You're not my mother Burr,” Alexander rolled his eyes, “but fine I won't drink any more.”

 

He gave Aaron as reassuring a face as he could muster. Burr decided to get out of there before he spent any more time gazing into those bright brown eyes.

 

* * *

 

Hamilton turned the radio on low and let an acoustic rift drift softly out of the station. He sighed and drank slowly trying to focus only on the lyrics. There were too many thoughts in his mind right now: Philip, Eliza, his debts, Aaron. He especially didn't want to think about that last one.

 

He downed his glass and wished he hadn't promised not to drink more. At least he had enough to sleep quickly; he really needed that.

 

He stumbled a little on the way up the stairs. He peered into the children's room and smiled at Philip's sleeping figure. His son was so handsome and brilliant in every way. His heart swelled with pride and he tried to push away that intrusive thought that kept reminding him,  _ this is the last night you'll see him like this. _

 

Burr’s room was already dark. Hamilton was already in his sweats but he couldn't sleep. He sat down at the end of his bed and sighed, gripping his spinning head and trying to shake away that persistent sadness.

 

“Is it Philip?” He heard Burr’s voice say.

 

Hamilton lifted his head and saw Aaron had propped himself up on one arm and way watching him with those pitch black eyes of his. Alex could only nod in response.

 

“He loves you Alexander,” Burr assured him.

 

Hamilton still said nothing. He shouldn't be sad, really. Burr was right. But he couldn't stop himself from feeling anxious about it. It was absurd but he just couldn't stop being sad.

 

“Hamilton you can sleep here if you want,” Burr offered patting the free side of his own bed.

 

Hamilton jumped at that, “but last night y–”

 

“–last night you were being a dick,” Burr interrupted, “just get in the fucking bed before I change my mind okay?”

 

Alexander obeyed a little too enthusiastically. He scrambled into the bed and lay down on his side.

 

A few moments later he felt a hand grip his, “Aaron?” He asked.

 

“Go to sleep Alex,” Burr mumbled, squeezing his hand assuredly.  “you'll be fine.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also for those who read chapter 3 the second it came out you may not have noticed cuz I linked it in the end notes but I wrote a smut spinoff on my blog where they fuck in the ballpit so if you hate god, that option is available to you


	5. Sunday

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> LOOK FINAL CHAPTER!!!!
> 
> Just two things:  
> 1) For those who have been following this fic you may have noticed that the rating has been changed. Yes I had originally wanted to put smut in this but as I approached the end of this story I realized that I couldn't really build the relationship the the point I wanted it to be at while still getting porn in. If this is a huge disappointment to you then you're in luck, on my blog (fuckboyaham) I have spent the past two months rping tons of kinky hamburrger smut with my good buddy (ask-aaron-burr) that takes place in nearly the exact same universe as this story! So yea if you want more porn, see the fuckboyrp tag on my blog for more of that sin.
> 
> 2) I just want to formally apologize for the wait on this chapter. I don't really have an excuse, I had plenty of time to work on it I just didn't. I rewrote the first 1000 words nearly 5 times entirely before giving up for a while and then writing the entire thing over the past two days. I hope it wraps everything up and makes up for the hiatus.

Burr woke up when he felt a hand close around his. He had let go of Hamilton when the other man had seemingly fallen asleep and had made a point of staying as far away from him as he possibly could. He had naively hoped that Alexander would make nothing of this, as though they would still be drunk in the morning. 

 

That, of course, was not the case. He turned over sleepily to examine their intertwined hands, then cautiously lifted his gaze up to meet Hamilton’s. They hung there for a brief moment, in a silence so heavy that each could hear the other’s heartbeat. Alexander had that look he got when a million thoughts were racing through his mind at one moment. On Burr’s end, he couldn't think of anything at all. He was waiting to see what would happen next.

 

Finally Hamilton cleared his throat, “um,” he seemed to fumble for words for a moment, “good morning…” he said finally, glancing away briefly and chewing on the inside of his lip.

 

Burr glanced back as their hands. He realized that he had instinctively gripped the other man back and was now unable to slide his hand out of the other man’s grasp without using force. He was stuck. “Good morning,” he replied, hoping he sounded more sleepy than awkward.

 

“Burr…” Hamilton began.

 

Suddenly Aaron's senses started to come back to him,  _ what are you doing?, _ his brain mentally kicked itself, “we should go get breakfast ready,” Burr interrupted trying to yank his hand away. 

 

Hamilton kept his grip firm, “ we need to talk,” he insisted in a serious tone.

 

Perhaps Burr could have overpowered if he’d wanted to, but for some reason he didn't. He gave Hamilton a pained look, which the other man answered with a shrug, “you promised, Aaron,” he reminded him.

 

“What do you want to know?” Burr asked, relaxing his arm despondently.

 

“What is this?” Hamilton asked gesturing to their entertained hands.

 

“Hands?” Burr suggested sarcastically, then added, “a gesture of friendship, perhaps?”

 

“Ha ha,” Hamilton said bitterly, “I meant what are we doing?”

 

“Holding hands,” Burr stated again plainly and hesitated before adding, “in bed.”

 

Hamilton nodded, “and what would that make us?”

 

“The victims of a serious lapse of judgment,” he replied, keeping his expression neutral.

 

“On your part or mine?”

 

“Both.”

 

“Aaron…” Hamilton said again, “this isn't the first time–”

 

“–Hamilton can we just agree that the two of us make shitty decisions in equal amounts?” Burr interrupted, pleadingly.

 

“I wasn't disputing who makes worse decisions!” Hamilton snapped, before calming himself down and elaborating, “I just mean to say that I don't think this is a mistake.”

 

Burr sighed, “can we please not talk about this right now? Surely the kids need breakfast, I should got get started on that and–”

 

“–No way Aaron! This is the same shit you pulled yesterday!” Hamilton interrupted him, “I need an answer.”

 

Burr pinched the bridge of his nose, “I'm not sure I understand the question…”

 

“What are we?” Hamilton reiterated.

 

Burr rolled his eyes at that, “As though I know any better than you do? Ask me something I can actually reply to!”

 

Hamilton thought for a moment, “do you want to go out sometime?” He asked scrunching up his face as though the words sounded foreign to him.

 

Burr thought for a moment. He hadn't been expecting that. If Hamilton had wanted to go the romantic route, he had assumed the other man would just try and propose a relationship status. The concept of actually dating Alexander had never even crossed his mind; mostly because Burr felt like he already knew the man, negating the necessity for nights out or smalltalk. That being said, the preposition didn't seem wholly unpleasant. 

 

Burr let his mind wander back to all the hesitations he had about Hamilton; the other man's spontaneity, his disloyalty, his avoidance of conventional dating. Burr had just assumed that Hamilton, being the sort of person he was, would never just ask him out, rather, he would choose to just throw himself at Aaron in some sort of absurd fit of romantic passion. The very fact that he had suggested a date partially dispelled those notions and left Aaron actually considering it. 

 

Still though, there was a doubt there. “Can I think about it?” Burr asked him finally.

 

Hamilton frowned and opened his mouth to protest but instead he just sighed, “as long as you don't take too long.”

 

Burr knew what he meant and nodded in agreement, then he pulled his hand away and said, “help me fold up your bed so we can move it to the basement. I'll tidy up down there while you figure out how to talk to Eliza."

 

Hamilton's face fell; he had forgotten about that, “what should I even say to her? What if she asks me why I didn't tell her I was living with you?”

 

“She won't ask that because you won't tell her that,” Burr replied firmly, “you're not lying to the woman anymore, you're going to meet with her and you're going to tell her the entire truth or I won't even consider your offer and you can go back to sleeping in your office.”

 

“But what if she won't let me see Philip anymore?” Alex whined, his face clearly distressed.

 

Burr rolled his eyes, “trust me she wouldn't do that.”

 

“You don't know her!”

 

“Neither do you, it would seem.”

 

“She knows I don't deserve to see him!”

 

_ Ah so that was the reason _ . Burr put a hand on Hamilton's shoulder, “just because you don't think you deserve to see him doesn't mean she sees it that way, Alex.”

 

“That's not what I said,” Hamilton groaned, shoving Burr's hand away.

 

“Philip loves you Hamilton and regardless of what Eliza thinks of you she wouldn't keep the two of you apart. Now for fucks sake call her at breakfast after you help me with this couch!”

 

Hamilton acquiesced.

 

* * *

 

Hamilton decided that there couldn’t possibly exist a task more morally-destructive and tedious than trying to move a couch down two flights of stairs. It didn't help that neither he nor Burr were particularly strong. One thing he noted was that while Burr didn't outwardly seem to complain about the work like Alex did, he also seemed to give up more, often switching his arms or letting his muscles go slack. 

 

Given the frustrating nature of their trek, Hamilton found himself yelling at Burr every time he shifted the weight onto him and soon Aaron was yelling back at him.

 

“For fucks sake Burr! Again?” He yelped as he felt the couch tilt to his right, “you know I can feel it you when you do that!”

 

“For the love of god Hamilton if you keep swearing in front of my daughter…” the other man hissed back.

 

“You know, given the definition on your arms I really thought you could lift better!”

 

Burr ignored the implications of that comment, “says the man who hasn't lifted more than a pen in years!”

 

“Excuse me? I spent my teen years lifting crates of rum in the sweltering heat while you were off riding horses down at your fucking country house!”

 

“It's a legitimate sport!”

 

“The horse does all the fucking work Burr!”

 

“If the horse can do more work maybe he can stay in my basement and I'll send you to sleep in my uncle’s stables!”

 

Theo munched on a granola bar and watched them thoughtfully, “two horses would be much quieter,” she observed, “perhaps you both should move to uncle’s farm?”

 

It continued like that until the couch got wedged in the basement door frame they both collectively agreed that they would finish the job later.

 

They were still winded and bitter by the time all four of them were seated for breakfast. Hamilton kept his eyes glued on his cereal, trying to focus his thoughts. Despite the frustration with the couch, he was still enjoying himself. He liked the nice pattern his life had slipped into this weekend, particularly he liked not having to eat breakfast alone. 

 

He was suddenly struck by a strange sense of foreboding that this might just end up being his last happy moment before his mistakes finally caught up to him and sent his life spiralling back into the gutter.

 

This weekend had been more than just a reprieve, it had been a second chance. If he had just told Eliza the truth, if he had just not said anything to Aaron, if he could just think before acting for once in his life… But it was pointless; he'd said what he's said and done what he'd done and now he was likely never going to see his son again. On top of that, he would probably have to quit his job and move away from New York entirely to escape his embarrassing interactions with Burr. 

 

He wondered if there was any use for a lawyer in St Croix. He doubted he would ever see Aaron again there. Alexander recalled there being a lot of attractive young men and women in his hometown, though that might've been due to the fact that everyone looks hotter when you're seventeen and hormonal as hell. Though he wondered if perhaps there was a chance he would find another dark-eyed man with perfect skin, a smooth elegant figure and a cool voice that made his heart flutter. Hamilton stuffed his mouth full of cornflakes and considered re-joining a church.

 

“Are we going to see mommy today?” Philip asked, breaking the tense silence in his usual innocent way.

 

Hamilton sighed and Burr gave him a look, “you may as well get it over with,” he pointed out handing Hamilton the house phone.

 

Hamilton handed it back, “I'm calling her from my cell,” he replied.

 

Burr narrowed his eyes, “you are going to tell her where you're living, aren't you?”

 

“Over lunch,” he replied, “I'd rather tell her in person.”

 

The other man rolled his eyes and took the phone back.

 

Alexander breathed, downed his coffee like a shot, and dialed Eliza's number. 

 

It rang twice before she picked up, “Alexander?” She asked, her voice sounding fuzzy from the bad reception, yet still as sweet and melodic as Hamilton remembered it.

 

“Hey,” he replied, trying not to sound distressed, “I was wondering if you wanted to meet for lunch, so we can talk and I can give Phil back.”

 

There was a pause on the other end, “to talk about what?” She asked cautiously, “is that really such a good idea Alex?”

 

“Trust me,” Hamilton pleaded, realizing with a pang that he had done nothing to deserve her trust, “it's about Philip and it's important.”

 

“What's wrong?” She sounded concerned.

 

“Nothing nothing,” he assured her, “I'll tell you over lunch.”

 

“Fine,” she sighed, “text me the location I'll be back in New York in a couple hours.”

 

The line went dead and Hamilton collapsed as though he'd run a marathon. He closed his eyes tight a moment, then forced a smile and turned to Philip, “we’re meeting mommy for lunch Phil, go get yourself dressed.”

 

His son nodded and cleared his plate, scampering out the kitchen followed by Theo. She shot Hamilton a look of pity on her way out that just made him uncomfortable; why did she always look like she knew more than she let on?”

 

There was a brief silence, then Hamilton got up, “I need more coffee,” he stated, to no one in particular, and, avoiding Burr's gaze, marched over to the coffee pot and poured everything remaining in it into his mug.

 

A hand fell on his shoulder that made him stiffen, “you shouldn't drink that much with your meds,” Burr warned him, pulling the mug away and taking a sip from it himself.

 

“Hey, that's mine,” Hamilton protested, reaching for it, “you’re acting like my mother again, Aaron, give it back!”

 

Burr jumped backwards and took another sip with a grin on his face, “last time I checked it was my mug, my coffee maker, and my water.”

 

"Nobody owns tap water," Hamilton groaned, lunging for it again but Burr held the mug behind him just beyond his reach, “come on Aaron I need it!”

 

“No you don't,” the other man replied smugly, leaning backwards as Hamilton tried to reach around him. 

 

Their bodies were now nearly flush against each other, much to Alexander's despair, and in a fit of annoyance he gave Burr a shove. 

 

Due to his position, Aaron fell, grabbing on to Hamilton's shirt as he did, and causing them both to come crashing down onto the floor. The mug smashed and Hamilton rolled over onto his face and groaned into the floor. He was too mortified to ever get up again

 

Burr sat up and just started giggling at him, “now neither of us gets it,” he said between snorts.

 

“You asshole,” Hamilton moaned into the floor, “I needed it.”

 

“You weren't going to die without it,” Aaron pointed out, picking up a shard of the porcelain mug and rolling it between his fingers absentmindedly.

 

“Yes I was Burr!” Hamilton whined, rolling over, “now I’m going to die, right here in your kitchen!” He grabbed his chest theatrically with one hand and Aaron’s shirt with the other, “you have killed me Aaron Burr! And in your own house no less! I was so young Burr,” he faked a sob, “please tell my story!” He made a final choking gasp and closed his eyes for the dramatic ending.

 

Burr laughed harder, “hey Thespis, you’re getting coffee in your hair.”

 

“Shit!” Hamilton cursed, scrambling to sit up and leaning against the counter next to Aaron. He frantically tried to rub the coffee out of the tips of his hair, though only a few drops had really gotten in. It was a little annoying but the other man’s amusement made the theatrics worth it. 

 

He gave up with the hair and collapsed against the counter as his worries came back to him. Burr put a hand on his shoulder, “you'll be fine, you know,”  he said in a serious tone, “Eliza is very understanding.”

 

“What if I don’t know what to say?” Hamilton asked, not meeting his eyes.

 

“Alexander Hamilton not knowing what to say? Unheard of!” Aaron scoffed, “as long as you tell the truth, I'm certain you'll figure out a way to say it well.”

 

Hamilton nodded, wondering when the other man had gotten so good at knowing exactly what to say to him. “Sorry about your mug…” he said, changing the subject.

 

“I have others,” Burr replied, dismissively.

 

“I should get ready,” he said getting up and reaching an arm out to pull Burr up with him.

 

“I'll drive you and Philip to lunch if you want,” Aaron offered, “Theo and I are going to the museum today so if it’s not too far out of our way we’ll drop you off.”

 

Hamilton finally turned to smile at him, “thank you," he said, "for everything I mean.”

 

Burr just smiled in response, placing a hand on his shoulder again before turning to exit the kitchen. 

 

* * *

 

Eliza was already waiting for him when they arrived at the diner. She had taken a booth by the window and was gazing thoughtfully out towards the street, her delicate hands clasped beneath her chin and her dark hair spilling down her back like silk. A few months ago the sight would've made Hamilton fall in love all over again and come running towards her to beg for forgiveness; now, however, it just made him feel guilty. Burr was right, he was a fucking idiot to have let her go.

 

When she saw them approach her face brightened and she stepped out of the booth to run over to Philip.

 

“Mommy!” His son cried scampering over to her, leaving Hamilton alone with his bags.

 

They embraced tightly and Hamilton was hit by a vague memory of a time where he would have been a part of that reunion. He forced away the intrusive thoughts and focused on how happy Phil was. He shot Eliza a smile when she finally looked up at him.

 

She approached him cautiously and they stood awkwardly in front of one another for a moment, unsure of what to say. It was the first time they were meeting on good terms since they had broken up. Hamilton acted first, reaching his free arm out as if to half-hug her but changing his mind midway and simply shaking her hand. “You look good,” he told her and she responded with a relieved smile. So far, so good.

 

“So how are things?” He asked once they both got settled into the booth.

 

Eliza sat across from him next to Phil who was happily colouring a printout of a rocketship with the free restaurant crayons. He would occasionally look up at them, seeming quite pleased that they weren't fighting.

 

She sipped her water thoughtfully, “things are good,” she said, adding, “I'm going back to school to finish my nursing degree.”

 

“Really?” Hamilton asked, “what about Phil?”

 

“It's a little tough,” she explained, “he’s usually in school but I've had to hire a nanny from time to time. It's worth it though. My father has been kind to us but I'd prefer to be independent.”

 

Hamilton nodded, feeling slightly guilty about having left her in that situation. “You'd make an excellent nurse,” he said, encouragingly.

 

Eliza frowned, “so what's this all about anyways, Hamilton?” She asked, “forgive me, but I still don't feel completely comfortable with just small-talk yet and I'd like to know what exactly you came out here to say to me.”

 

That stung a little, but again it was fair. Hamilton’s quick anger had become much more dulled as a result of his recent self-loathing, and although he despised his mental state, it was useful for keeping himself under control. “Eliza I haven't been completely honest with you,” he finally told her, trying to sound apologetic.

 

His ex-wife’s face fell, “oh God, what did you do now?”

 

“No I don't mean–” he began but cut himself off mid protest.  _ She’s right not to trust you, _ he told himself. “I lied to you about having an apartment,” he admitted, “I wanted to see Phil so badly that when you asked me I just said I did so you would let him stay with me.”

 

Eliza went stiff, her gaze cold and dark as she glared into her drink. Her rage was rare but frightening and this was the second time in his life Hamilton had ever had the misfortune of seeing it. “So you're homeless, then?” She asked slowly, not meeting his eyes.

 

“I was living in my office,” he admitted sheepishly.

 

She was breathing heavily now, her knuckles white on the table as she tried to stay calm, “and you let our son, our five year old son, live with you in your office?” 

 

“Eliza I–”

 

“–I didn't sleep in an office!” Philip interrupted them, looking confused, “what are you talking about daddy?”

 

Eliza’s mouth dropped a little and she looked between Philip and Alexander in confusion, “okay somebody tell me the truth!” She exclaimed angrily, her voice just below a shout.

 

“We stayed with mister Burr,” Philip explained, giving Hamilton a queer look.

 

“Aaron?” Eliza asked, looking at him curiously, though her expression had softened a little to a sort of bewildered relief.

 

Hamilton nodded, “he offered to let Phil and I stay with him and Theo for the weekend.”

 

Eliza's eyes widened, “that's awfully nice of him, I don't recall the two of you ever being on great terms…”

 

Hamilton shrugged, “he grew on me.”

 

Eliza sighed and her expression returned to its usual calm, “so he had a bed and everything?”

 

Philip shook her arm excitedly, “it was a bunk bed mommy! I shared it with Theo like a sleepover! And they took us to chuck e cheese!”

 

“That's wonderful sweetie!” Eliza smiling brightly at him, “you'll have to tell me everything at supper tonight, but for now could you let me finish talking to your father?” He nodded and she ruffled his hair and handed him a red crayon that had rolled over to her side of the table.

 

Finally she turned to Hamilton and gave him a stern look, “you should've told me the truth.”

 

Hamilton gazed at Philip longingly, “I just wanted to see him again, Betsy,” he whispered, “I know I was a shitty husband, but I just wanted to get the chance to be a half decent father.”

 

Eliza was still frowning, “You know I don't like being lied to, Alex, and I especially don't like that you risked the safety of our son. What if Burr hadn’t decided to help you?”

 

“I know, sorry for that Eliza,” he apologized, and he really meant it, “I'm truly sorry for everything.”

 

She reached across the table and squeezed his hand, “I’ll forgive you for this, though you’ll have to wait a while for me to forget the affair. In all honestly though, I'm tired of fighting. Just promise me you won’t do it again and I won't tell Angelica about this.”

 

Now that was a frightening prospect. Hamilton shuddered, “I swear on my life I won't.”

 

“I'm also not letting him stay with you unless you have a real place to live,” she added, “you can still take him on outings but I’m not letting him couch-surf with you.”

 

“Does Burr’s basement count as a place to live?” He asked sheepishly.

 

“He's letting you stay with him permanently?”

 

“I have to split the bills and pay for my own groceries, but yeah.”

 

Eliza thought for a moment, “that would actually be a really great place for Phil to stay on weekends, if Burr doesn't mind. Theo is a nice girl and I do think Philip should see more of his father.”

 

Hamilton was surprised by that last part, “you do?”

 

She raised an eyebrow at him, “of course I do Alex! He loves you! I may still be upset with you but I wouldn't keep you away from your son.”

 

Hamilton felt his whole body sigh in relief, “thank you Eliza, he means the world to me.”

 

She smiled at him, “I'm glad you care so much about Philip, Alex; it means you've matured.”

 

* * *

 

In the middle of the small, white, gallery, Burr and Theo quietly observed the painting before them.

 

Art museums had become both their happy places. They liked these small local galleries in particular because they were quieter and the exhibits were changed more frequently.

 

When they were in more prominent museums, Burr would occasionally teach Theo facts about the paintings and their history, however he knew very little about art theory itself so during lesser known exhibits, they just observed.

 

To anyone watching them from the outside, they looked like the most boring pair of people in the world. Two darkly dressed figures who wandered slowly from piece to piece, giving each one a long look before continuing with very little discussion. Sometimes Burr would pick Theo up and carry her when her legs seemed to be getting tired. She would never requested this herself; he could just tell.

 

This was how Aaron used to spend his dates with Theodosia when they were young. She actually took classes on aesthetics and would tell him exactly what to look for in paintings. He could never really manage to understand it but her passion towards the subject had always captivated him; he loved genuine passion in people.

 

The went to a museum every weekend starting from their first date, and continuing on to their three year anniversary, during their honeymoon, and even when they had to push baby Theo through the small galleries in a stroller. Now it was just he and his daughter who kept up the tradition. The only part they had changed was now they always wore black when they went. Neither of them acknowledged this custom; like every other aspect of their relationship, they simply understood each other. 

 

This particular exhibit featured a lesser known modern artist. It wasn't really to either of their tastes, yet they went anyway; it had never really been about the art. They were staring at a painting that seemed to consist of several random paint splotches and that used a colour palette his wife would've described as “earthy” but Burr that would describe as “brownish”.

 

Theo summed it up better, breaking the silence to comment, “it's rather ugly isn't it?”

 

“We aren't exactly art critics, Theo,” he pointed out.

 

She scoffed, “you don't need to be an artist to see that something is ugly.”

 

Burr chuckled at that, “you got me there. They're all kinda ugly.”

 

Theo scanned the gallery and nodded in agreement. “That sculpture over there is pretty,” she pointed out, gesturing to a marble bust of a man in one of the back corners.

 

“That's not part of the exhibit, Theo, I think that's one of the founders of the museum.”

 

“They should do an exhibit on whoever made that,” she said, “it would be more interesting than any of this stuff.”

 

Aaron knew he shouldn't encourage her derision, but honestly he agreed with her, “do you want to go look at the sculpture?” 

 

“Sure,” she replied, gripping his hand tightly with her smaller one and pulling him over to it.

 

The sculpted man looked to be middle-aged, though Burr suspected he was probably older than that and the sculptor simply wanted to make him look younger. Nobody accomplished anything of historical significance while they were young and by the time a person got to be prominent enough to have statues made of them, they had usually gone ugly.

 

He reached a hand out and traced the outline of the bust compulsively, enjoying the feel of the smooth white stone beneath his fingertips.

 

“Dad, I'm not certain you're supposed to do that,” Theo warned him, looking around warily in the direction of the security guard.

 

“It's not part of the exhibit,” he retorted, though he pulled his hand away, slightly embarrassed.

 

“It's still kinda weird,” she commented, wrinkling her nose a little.

 

“I just find them interesting is all,” Burr tried to explain, “I mean, they made so many marble statues of so many different people, yet they all look the same when you see them up close.”

 

She looked at him like he’d grown a second head, “what do you mean?”

 

Burr wasn't sure what they meant. “Well, I guess I just find it interesting how historical figures always seem rather godlike when you carve them out of marble, when, in reality, they were just people who did their jobs well enough that an artist decided to carve them. They were only human. People should be painted and marble should be left for depicting legends and heroes.”

 

“Will you get a statue made of you, if you do a good job?” She asked innocently. She didn't understand what he was trying to say, which was fine by Aaron, as he hadn’t really articulated it properly anyway.

 

He dropped the subject, snorting and telling her, “I wouldn't want one; with my luck, the artist would just end up ruining my nose.”

 

She giggled at that and he picked her up to carry her back to the car, “shall we go pick up Mr Hamilton?” He asked and she nodded.

 

As they were leaving she glanced behind him back at the statue, “I'll bet Mr Hamilton would want a statue made of himself.”

 

Aaron nodded in agreement and thought privately to himself,  _ if there was ever a man who was meant to be immortalized in stone, it would probably be Alexander Hamilton. _

 

* * *

With Philip gone the weekend seemed to be drawing to a close. When Burr had picked up Hamilton, the other man had seemed to be in good humour, saying a polite goodbye to Eliza and receiving a rather touching embrace from his son, however, once he settled down into the passenger seat, he suddenly went very quiet.

 

Burr watched him cautiously out of the corner of his eye for the entirety of the drive. Even when in deep thought, he noticed there was still a restlessness to Alexander. He fidgeted in his seat, drumming his fingers on the window and occasionally squinting or frowning in reaction to a conversation taking place entirely in his head.

 

He disappeared into Burr’s bedroom when they got home, running up the stairs with an urgency that suggested he did not wish to be disturbed. Aaron could never tell whether he ought to console the man or not. He, personally, was a firm believer in the therapy of solitude, however Hamilton might be the sort who preferred company. 

 

Ultimately he elected to leave Alexander alone, deciding that he didn't really have the energy to comfort him anyway. Without either of their guests present the atmosphere of the house slipped back into the usual lazy Sunday. Both he and Theo were feeling socially exhausted and snuggled up together in front of the television.

 

Burr thought he should feel a sense of relief. In a way this weekend felt like a crisis; a climax that was at last drawing to a close. Tomorrow he would go back to work and Theo back to school with the only difference in their lives being the addition of Hamilton. Of course, that was a rather significant difference…

 

He felt as if he’d spent this entire weekend over-analyzing their relationship and it was starting to grow tiresome. He decided to distract himself with dinner, before he was forced to think about this again.

 

* * *

Hamilton felt neither sad nor happy; just empty. This emotion seemed to happen more frequently since the divorce and he couldn’t really predict what exactly would trigger them. He called them “lows”, lingering remnants of the seasonal depression he used to get in his youth.

 

He despised this feeling more than any sort of anger or sadness; he would rather feel badly than feel nothing at all. Sometimes during these lows he would just freeze and stare at the wall for hours, unable to move or think. That’s what he was tempted to do when he got back to Burr’s house, however those episodes always left him rather shaken.

He decided instead to shower until the hot water ran out, then focus his attention on an old political essay he had started years ago, when he had thought he might run for office. 

 

He had hundreds of documents like this. In his current job, they served little purpose, and he doubted they ever would, seeing as how he didn't really intend to go back into politics. He still wrote them, however, driven by the same force to write that he’d had since childhood. He never corrected these essays or published them; he simply found it comforting to let his fingers race over the keys as he defended his philosophies to unknown oppositions.

 

Hamilton couldn't say how long he worked but he inevitably hit a writer's block and decided he missed companionship.

 

He wandered into the kitchen and noticed Aaron hunched over a pot on the stove. “Need any help?” He asked wandering over to see what was happening.

 

“It's just spaghetti,” Burr sighed, tensing up at the sound of his entry.

 

“I still feel like I ought to help!” he protested, “after all, you made breakfast!” Hamilton crossed his arms stubbornly.

 

“I just have to stir this pot,” the other man said, “it's really not a big deal!”

 

“I'll stir it!” Hamilton offered, taking the spoon away before Burr could stop him.

 

Burr opened his mouth as if to argue, only to shrug, “fine then! I don't want to fight. Just don't burn the house down.” He went over and flopped down into the dining room chair.

 

Hamilton hummed, trying to lighten the mood, “I'm not fighting Aaron, I simply want to contribute.”

 

“You never offer to do housework out of the kindness of your heart,” Burr grumbled, “I've only ever seen you clean your office when you wanted to avoid the boring clients.”

 

Hamilton shrugged, “regardless of the intention, wasn’t the office cleaned?”

 

“Just tell me what it is you came down here for!” the other man said, exasperated.

 

“Just to talk,” Alex replied,still humming to himself.

 

“I suppose it's too much to hope that you want to just talk about the weather?” Burr groaned.

 

Hamilton shook his head, “just something that's been bugging me.”

 

“Go on?”

 

He decided to jump right into it, “do you think I've grown up Burr?” 

 

“What?” The other man asked, sounding surprised by the question, “you're in your 40's Hamilton?”

 

“I know that!” He protested, “it's just that, Eliza said I had matured and I was just wondering about it…”

 

“What's there to wonder?”

 

“It just seemed odd. Do you think I’ve grown up since you knew me?”

 

Burr paused to think, “you've changed, though I couldn't say for certain whether you're any more mature. Your priorities seem to be in the right place, at least.”

 

“You mean Phil?” Hamilton said, “see that's the part I don't understand! I always loved Phil.”

 

“Hamilton before the divorce did you ever hang out with your son at all?” Burr asked rhetorically, “before this last week, I doubt you ever saw him more than at suppers! I'm not saying all this shit was completely good for you but you're certainly...” he fumbled for the word, “humbler than you used to be. That's why I let you stay.”

 

Hamilton glanced at him, “that was your reason? I thought you were doing it for Philip.”

 

“Well that was one reason, but mostly I thought you deserved a chance to make things right with him,” Aaron explained in his usual, sensible way.

 

Hamilton sighed, “I owe you more than I can repay, Aaron.”

 

“Take care of Philip and you'll owe me nothing,” the other man replied with a tone of finality that kept Alex from questioning him further.

 

* * *

Burr let Hamilton put Theo to bed. It was at her request, oddly enough. She asked them at the end of supper in her calm and deceptively innocent voice, “could Mr Hamilton put me to bed tonight?” Poor Alex had choked on his food in surprise.

 

The only explanation she offered Hamilton was that she wanted to get to know him better, however she privately explained to Aaron that she thought he should practice doing more “dad stuff” while Philip was away. Burr tried to protest but she gave him a pleading look and said, “but you're already a good dad; he needs to get a chance to learn as well!” There was no way to refuse her when she put it like that.

 

He wanted to eavesdrop, curious to see exactly how his daughter would interact with Alex, but he suppressed that urge. Some part of him wondered if she had an ulterior motive to all this; she was so bright for her age that it was difficult to say.

 

Burr knew though that he had to respect his her privacy; he could not ask his daughter to trust him if he couldn't trust her. 

 

He ended up taking a shower that was much colder than he would've liked.

 

When he came out again, he was stuck by the new emptiness of his room and remembered with a start that he and Alex still needed to get the couch bed back into the basement.

 

He was about to go find the other man when a strange sound reached his ears. Wafting out of Theo's room was a voice, undoubtedly Hamilton's, yet still foreign to Burr; he had never heard the other man sing. It was a nursery rhyme that he usually sung Theo, with simple, innocent lyrics that had always sounded odd coming out of a man's mouth. He assumed she had requested it. Hearing someone other than him sing it was strange enough but from Alexander’s lips it was even stranger still. 

 

Burr froze outside Theo's door and just listened. He had heard once back in college that Hamilton used to sing old war songs when he got drunk. His friends claimed he was good, though if Aaron was being completely honest, he was average: on-tune and pleasant but not melodic in the way a practiced singer's was. It wasn't necessarily the quality of the voice itself that made Burr’s knees go weak; it was the man who possessed it. 

 

Burr realized in that moment that he would never understand Hamilton; he didn't now and he doubted he ever would.  Yet he did know one thing with absolute certainty: he would also never cease to be amazed by that man until the day he died. 

 

_ Yes this is definitely the sort of man they make statues of, _ he thought to himself,  _ he has all the temper, self-centredness and looks of a classical era hero. _ Burr closed his eyes and made a decision.

 

The music stopped and a few moments later Hamilton pushed the door open, jumping when he saw Burr, “did you hear all that?”

 

Burr nodded, speechless.

 

“I'm sorry,” Hamilton murmured sheepishly, “she asked me too, I hope I didn't disturb you.”

 

Burr still couldn't find the words. He reached out his hand to wrap it around Alexander's, both watching as their hands wrapped around each other's, slowly fitting themselves together, as though they were always meant to be one.

 

“Aaron?” Hamilton asked, still watching their hands.

 

_ Fuck it, _ Burr decided and he leant in to kiss away Alex’s confused expression, feeling a shudder of relief pass through him as their lips finally connected and he felt the other man's lithe body tense up, then press against him as he relaxed into it their embrace.

 

Hamilton kissed him back passionately, once the initial surprise wore off, sighing into Burr's mouth and forcing him closer towards the wall as he leaned into him. The kiss was deep, and even without using tongue Burr could taste the wine that lingered in Alexander’s mouth from supper, accompanied by a certain sweetness that was so distinctly Hamilton. This was right.

 

When the other man suddenly pulled away Burr nearly whined in protest. “Does this mean yes for the date?” He asked breathlessly.

 

Burr nodded and put a hand behind Hamilton's head to pull them back together again. 

 

This kiss was, again, short lived. Hamilton couldn’t pull away as easily as before but he still manages to get his mouth away long enough to add, “is Friday good? I know this really good Greek place by our office that is nice but modestly priced–”

 

“–m’sounds good,” Burr interrupted him by kissing him mid sentence. Couldn't they plan this later? 

 

“–not that we can't go somewhere fancier,” Hamilton continued, babbling directly into Aaron's mouth at this point, “I just figured you'd rather not spend extra money when we don't have t–” 

 

He stopped talking when Burr groaned and pulled away and placed a finger on his lips, “please Alex,” Burr pleaded, “talk less?”

 

“I hate it when you say that,” the other man grumbled, though his grin betrayed him and shut himself up with Aaron's mouth.

  
They never had to set up the futon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That just about sums it up. I did have plans in mind for a sequel but for now I'm going to work on finishing some one-shot and other projects so don't expect anything in the near future. Thank's for all the support, y'all are amazing!


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